The Impact of Sustainability and Circularity with Niclas Ihrén

On this episode of the Lead With Purpose podcast host, Tze Ching Yeung talks to Niclas Iren, an expert within the sustainability and circularity space, about his pioneering work in this area including wireless charging of electric vehicles while they’re driving and the issues around new technologies like this.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

My interest in sustainability and circularity started with my interest of the issues of the future; where are we heading, what will this world become far down the road, what are the big, macro issues for the future? It wasn’t called sustainability when I started but it got re-framed later.
Why stop for an hour to charge your car? Why not charge on the move? It can be done via dynamic wireless transfer where electric coils are embedded under the asphalt and under the vehicle is a receiver so when the vehicle passes over the infrastructure in the road a magnetic field is created which transfers the electricity to charge the battery while the vehicle is driving. It’s part of smart infrastructure of the future.
When I started my customers were the largest corporations, because they had pressure put on them to work toward sustainability, today it’s much smaller companies and startups which have circularity and sustainability at the core of the DNA of the company. To me it’s much more exciting to work with these small companies that want to change things for real, that want to have a transformative impact on society.
Lots of companies are purpose- or values-driven. When it comes to building a team and an organisation as it grows, a lot of people are also very values-driven and they want to pick where they want to work. If the values in the company don’t align with what they’re looking for then recruitment won’t be successful.

BEST MOMENTS

‘It’s really important for sustainability-based companies to not lose track of the fundamentals of doing business: Understanding their market/customer, designing products.’

‘There are different ways of forming your team but, typically, you need a lot of different skills, capabilities and competencies.’

‘In most businesses, the most important skill is the ability to meet the customer and make a sale. You can have the best product but, if you can’t sell it, it won’t work’

‘In any business you will consume resources, you can try and make as much of those resources circular, but you will never reach 100%.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Niclas Ihrén is recognized as one of the most influential thought-leaders on sustainability in business in the Nordics. Currently the CEO of strategy consultant Matters Group with a vast experience from; Tällberg Foundation, Global Utmaning/Global Challenge, World Climate Solutions, World Ecological Forum to mention a few.

Website

ABOUT THE HOST

Tze Ching started her entrepreneurial journey back in 2007 with the launch of a sustainable clothing & home furnishing ecommerce business. Next, she created a sustainable fashion brand.

In 2019, she launched a social enterprise to help raise awareness about the negative impact of fashion at schools & colleges.

Through the 15-year journey, she learned so much, but easily the most meaningful lesson learned was about the importance of marketing. She now focuses on channelling those insights to help others succeed through We Disrupt Agency, a business coaching, mentoring & digital marketing company.

Tze Ching’s mission is to create a community of global change makers and to contribute to positive change in both people & planet.

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