Pia Cook – Former Chief Sustainability Officer, IKEA

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Pia Cook Keynote Speaker
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ABOUT PIA

Pia Heidenmark Cook today enjoys a portfolio career, dividing her time between board, advisory and keynote speaking roles mainly across Europe and North America.

She is serving as non-executive director on boards across for-profit and non-profit organizations in healthcare, materials innovation, restaurants, and serves as advisor to a few professional services and private equity firms on sustainability.

Moreover, she is a frequent keynote speaker/lecturer on sustainability and business transformation at e.g., Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership, INSEAD, Boards Impact Forum and ESG/Climate Competent Boards’ Executive Training.

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.

In 2021, the total IKEA climate footprint decreased by almost 1.6 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents, in absolute terms compared to baseline FY16, a reduction of 5.8%, while IKEA sales surpassed previous highs.

This was the 3d consecutive year of climate footprint reductions despite increasing sales, meaning IKEA is on track to meet its 2030 climate positive goals. 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 joined IKEA in 2008 and held several senior sustainability positions at the company, and for the last 8 years she was member of the Executive Retail Management Team, the largest business division.
During her time as CSO, Pia led a team of sustainability professionals in the global office, as well as sustainability experts integrated across the Retail, Shopping Centre and Customer Fulfilment business across 30 countries in Europe, Asia Pacific and North America

Prior to IKEA, Pia worked as Vice President Corporate Social Responsibility at the Rezidor Hotel Group, operator of hotel brands Radisson Blu and Park Inn (300+ hotels in 50+ countries). During this period, Pia chaired the tourism branch of Prince of Wales Business Leader’s Forum, a membership organization for all major international hotel brands.

Pia holds both a Technical Licentiate degree and a M.Sc. in Environmental Management, from the University of Lund, Sweden, and a M.Sc. in International Business Administration and Economics from Uppsala University, Sweden. More recently a degree from the International Directors Programme at INSEAD.

Pia has worked with sustainability topics since 1996, across academia, consulting, and business.

Pia has been recognised as one of the world’s top female leaders in sustainability and one of theworld’s leasing influences on climate change.

In 2023, she was named Top 20 Sustainability Voices by t he CEO Magazine and received the Global 50 Women in Sustainability Awards by SustainabilityX® Magazine.

An international speaker, Pia was also globally recognised for her TED talk, titled “How IKEA is Growing Business Whilst Shrinking Emissions” and in 2024, a survey by Sustainability Speaker’s Agency named her the most sought-after speaker on sustainability.

Her first book, “Embedding Sustainability (Kogan Page, 2024)” was released in July 2024.
She is also mentoring young professional women in the sustainability space.

Books/Reports:

  • Embedding Sustainability by Pia Heidenmark Cook and Lisen Wiren, Kogan Page, July 2024.
  • CSOs at Work by Chrissa Pagitsas – one chapter dedicated to IKEA and my time as CSO, April 2022.
  • Wrote foreword in The Sustainable Business Handbook, by Mark Lee, David Grayson, Chris Coulter, February 2022.
  • Leading with a Sustainable Purpose. Report by Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership, together with CSOs of Unilever, Interface, DSM.

Podcasts

  • Navigating Zero by Zero North, September 2024.
  • Embedding Sustainability by Re:Co/Future in Sound, August 2024.
  • Embedding Sustainability by Sustainability Coffee-chat, July 2024.
  • All-In: The Sustainable Business Podcast, by Mark Lee, David Grayson, Chris Coulter, July 2024.
  • Sustainable Edge by Position Green, March 2024.