Is sustainability in a recession (and what can CSOs do about it)?

For our first CSO Futures Community event, join a candid conversation with Anna Turrell (former Decathlon CSO) and Pia Heidenmark Cook (former IKEA CSO) about the state of enterprise sustainability, what can be done to maintain momentum and where seasoned sustainability leaders find hope for the future.

July 8, 3pm BST (4pm CEST)

This event is reserved to CSO Community members only.

Apply here to join the community or email us your interest at melodie@csofutures.com

Speakers

Anna Turrell

Anna Turrell is a recognised global sustainability leader with nearly 20 years’ experience in the consumer goods, retail and consulting industries in Europe and Asia. She was most recently Chief Sustainability Officer at Decathlon, the world's largest sporting goods retailer.

Prior to Decathlon, Anna held sustainability leadership positions at global retailer Tesco and the world’s largest food company, Nestlé. At Tesco, as Group Sustainability Director she led the group’s strategic direction across diverse sustainability agendas, as well as managed the pioneering Tesco-WWF multi-year partnership. She was co-chair of the Consumer Goods Forum’s Forest Positive Coalition and was involved in the early development of the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosure.

Anna is passionate about collaborating with stakeholders across the value chain to tackle complex sustainability challenges and create shared value for businesses, communities, and the planet. She is a frequent speaker in industry forums and contributes to a range of sustainability initiatives and organisations. Anna currently serves on the boards of the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), Spanish agri-circularity start-up Insect Biotech, UK-based policy influencer Aldersgate Group, infrastructure investment group AviAlliance, and is also a strategic advisor to carbon management platform, Planet FWD. 

Pia Heidenmark Cook

Pia Heidenmark Cook enjoys a portfolio career, dividing her time between board, senior advisory and keynote speaking roles mainly across Europe and North America. She is serving as non-executive director on corporate boards across healthcare (Bupa), materials innovation (Origin Materials) and restaurants (MAX Burgers), and chairs the advisory board of the professional services company The
DO Group. She is also Senior Advisor to the private equity company Eurazeo’s Planetary Boundaries Impact Fund, and to Teneo (CEO Advisory Firm).

Prior, Pia worked at IKEA/Ingka Group for 13 years. The last five years (2017-2021) as Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO). At IKEA she led the development and implementation of the IKEA People and Planet Positive strategy. During this time, IKEA ranked in the top three most sustainable brands and managed to decouple carbon dioxide emissions from its commercial growth across the value
chain.

Pia has worked with sustainability topics since 1996, across academia, consulting, and business. She has lived in France and Belgium, is married to a Canadian and lives in Southern Sweden. Her first book, “Embedding Sustainability” (Kogan Page, 2024) was published in July 2024. She is also mentoring young professional women.

She is also a frequent keynote speaker/lecturer on sustainability and business transformation at e.g., Lund University (Sweden), Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership (CISL), INSEAD, Boards Impact Forum and Competent Boards’ Executive Training in addition to several corporate events and conferences. Pia has been recognized for her TED talk, “How IKEA is Growing Business Whilst Shrinking Emissions” and in 2024, a survey named her one of the most sought after speakers on sustainability. Pia has been recognized as one of the world’s top female leaders in sustainability and one of the world’s leading influences on climate change. In 2023, she was named Top 20 Sustainability Voices by the CEO Magazine and received the Global 50 Women in Sustainability Awards by SustainabilityX® Magazine. Pia was named top 10 female leaders in sustainability by WBCSD in 2018, and top 5 influencers on climate change agenda by the Climate Group, as well as top 100 climate influencers on Twitter in 2020.