Sustainable Edge

Climate risk is no longer a future scenario. It is already reshaping supply chains, economies, and business resilience. In this episode of Sustainable Edge, world-renowned climate scientist Johan Rockström explains why sustainability is no longer about compliance or reputation, but about managing risk, driving innovation, and ensuring long term competitiveness in a rapidly changing world.

In this episode of Sustainable Edge
Host Joachim Nahem, Executive Chairman and Co-Founder at Position Green, sits down with Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, IPCC contributor, and the scientist behind the Planetary Boundaries framework.
As climate impacts accelerate and businesses navigate growing geopolitical uncertainty, Johan shares why companies must rethink sustainability through the lens of resilience and long term value creation. Drawing on decades of scientific research, he explains why climate is only one part of a much broader systems challenge involving biodiversity, freshwater, oceans, and the stability of the Earth's life-support systems.
Together, they explore how science can help business leaders make better strategic decisions, where companies continue to underestimate risk, and why the transition to a more sustainable economy is becoming increasingly driven by competitiveness, energy security, and resilience rather than environmental ambition alone.

Johan Rockström explains why businesses that understand planetary boundaries will be better equipped to navigate uncertainty, strengthen resilience, and remain competitive as the global economy continues to transform.

Learn about:
Why sustainability is fundamentally about business risk
How climate change and planetary boundaries are creating operational, financial, and supply chain risks that boards can no longer afford to ignore.
Beyond climate
Why biodiversity loss, freshwater scarcity, healthy oceans, and ecosystem stability are becoming critical business issues alongside decarbonisation.
Resilience as a competitive advantage
How renewable energy, diversified supply chains, and systems thinking can strengthen businesses against geopolitical shocks and market disruption.
The business case for planetary boundaries
Why understanding environmental limits helps companies make smarter strategic decisions and build long term value.
The importance of predictable policy
Why businesses need stable regulatory frameworks to accelerate investment and innovation in the transition.
The hidden risks leaders overlook
Why intact nature and healthy oceans remain some of the biggest blind spots in corporate sustainability strategies.
Innovation through constraints
How sustainability challenges are driving new technologies, business models, and opportunities for growth.
From quantity to quality
Why the next generation of business success will depend less on increasing consumption and more on delivering greater value with fewer resources.

About Johan Rockström
Johan Rockström is one of the world's leading climate scientists and serves as Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). He is an author of the IPCC reports and internationally recognised for developing the Planetary Boundaries framework, which defines the environmental limits within which humanity can safely operate.
For more than two decades, Johan has advised governments, businesses, and international organisations on climate science, resilience, and sustainable development. His work has fundamentally shaped how leaders understand the relationship between environmental stability, economic prosperity, and long term business success.

Why it matters
As climate impacts become more visible and geopolitical uncertainty reshapes the global economy, businesses face increasing pressure to build resilience while remaining competitive. Johan argues that sustainability should no longer be viewed as a separate agenda, but as an essential part of managing risk, driving innovation, and securing future growth.
This conversation offers business leaders a science based perspective on how to navigate one of the defining challenges of our time and why understanding planetary boundaries may become one of the most important strategic capabilities for the decade ahead.

Climate may have moved down the headlines, but the challenges facing businesses and society have not gone away. In this episode of Sustainable Edge, Nina Siemiatkowski, co-founder of Milkywire and Flat Capital, explores how capital can accelerate climate and nature solutions, why carbon removal is becoming a critical tool in the net zero transition, and what sustainability leaders can learn from the world of technology and venture capital.

In this episode of Sustainable Edge
Host Joachim Nahem, Executive Chairman and Co-Founder at Position Green, sits down with Nina Siemiatkowski, co-founder and CEO of Milkywire, entrepreneur, investor, and co-founder of Flat Capital.
Nina's journey is anything but conventional. After a successful corporate career, she became a wildlife photographer, spending years documenting ecosystems and biodiversity in Africa. Those experiences exposed her to the realities of biodiversity loss and climate change and ultimately inspired her to build Milkywire, a company dedicated to helping organisations fund high impact climate and nature solutions.
Today, Nina operates at the intersection of sustainability, entrepreneurship, and technology. Through Milkywire, she helps companies navigate climate and nature investments, while through Flat Capital she invests in some of the world's most influential technology companies, including OpenAI and SpaceX. Her unique perspective offers valuable insights into how capital, innovation, and long term thinking can help drive the next phase of the sustainability transition.

Nina Siemiatkowski shares her perspective on the future of climate action, carbon markets, nature restoration, and entrepreneurship. She explains why sustainability remains a long term economic opportunity despite shifting political priorities and changing market sentiment.

Learn about:
Capital as a catalyst for climate action
Why funding climate and nature solutions remains one of the biggest untapped opportunities for businesses and investors.
The future of carbon removal
How durable carbon removal is evolving from a niche market into an essential component of credible net zero strategies.
Beyond emissions reductions
Why businesses need to think not only about reducing emissions, but also about restoring nature and supporting climate solutions.
Scaling climate solutions like technology companies
What climate entrepreneurs can learn from the growth journeys of successful technology businesses.
The risks of premature scaling
Why many founders overestimate market readiness and how to balance ambition with discipline.
Profit and impact go hand in hand
Why long term impact requires financially sustainable business models.
Climate, AI, and the battle for capital
What today's investment trends reveal about conviction, innovation, and future market opportunities.
Reasons for optimism
Why Nina believes the sustainability transition is continuing, even if it is happening more quietly than before.

About Nina Siemiatkowski
Nina Siemiatkowski is the co-founder and CEO of Milkywire, an impact firm helping companies design and manage programs that support climate and nature goals. Milkywire works with leading organisations to fund high quality climate solutions, biodiversity initiatives, and carbon removal projects around the world.
Nina is also the co-founder of Flat Capital, a publicly listed investment company that invests in frontier technology companies including OpenAI and SpaceX. Having also witnessed the growth of Klarna from close range, she brings a rare combination of experience across entrepreneurship, investing, technology, and sustainability.
A passionate advocate for climate and nature, Nina continues to explore how capital can be directed toward solving some of the world's most pressing environmental challenges.

Why it matters
As businesses navigate economic uncertainty, geopolitical tensions, and rapid technological change, sustainability can sometimes feel less urgent than it did just a few years ago. Yet climate change, biodiversity loss, and resource constraints continue to shape the long term outlook for economies and markets.
Nina argues that the next phase of the transition will be defined not by promises, but by execution. Companies, investors, and entrepreneurs that understand how to combine innovation, capital, and long term thinking will be best positioned to create value while contributing to a more resilient future.

Resource from this episode: https://milkywire.com/white-papers/operational-net-zero

As geopolitical tensions rise and sustainability faces growing scrutiny, some long term investors are doubling down instead of pulling back. In this live episode of Sustainable Edge, Siri Sachs of the Wallenberg ecosystem and Johan H. Andresen of FERD explore how resilience, competitiveness, ethics, and sustainability shape investment decisions in a world where uncertainty has become the new normal.

In this episode
Siri Sachs and Johan H. Andresen share how family ownership structures can enable long term thinking and why sustainability remains deeply tied to resilience and competitiveness, even in a more fragmented global landscape.

Learn about:
Long term investing in uncertain times Why some investors continue backing large scale green transitions despite market volatility and political uncertainty
Sustainability and competitiveness How climate investments are increasingly viewed as essential for future industrial strength and resilience
Risk taking and transformation: Why family owned businesses can take longer term bets that public markets often avoid
Purpose beyond profit: How responsibility, social impact, and ethics influence investment decisions and talent attraction
Engagement versus exclusion: Why active ownership and supplier engagement can sometimes drive more meaningful change than divestment
AI and ethical leadership: How investors are thinking about the opportunities and risks tied to artificial intelligence and autonomous systems
Regulation and execution: Why predictable frameworks matter, but overregulation can risk slowing competitiveness and innovation
The future of Nordic leadership: How collaboration, trust, and long term ownership models could help shape a more sustainable economy

About Siri Sachs
Siri Sachs is a Board Member at Wallenberg Investments and part of the sixth generation of the Wallenberg family. The Wallenberg ecosystem includes foundations, industrial holdings, and global companies such as ABB, AstraZeneca, Ericsson, and SEB. Her work focuses on long term ownership, competitiveness, and ensuring that investments contribute to future resilience and innovation.

About Johan H. Andresen
Johan H. Andresen is the Owner and Chair of FERD, a family owned investment company focused on long term value creation and social impact. Under his leadership, FERD transformed from a tobacco business into a diversified investment platform with holdings across industry, technology, and sustainability focused ventures. Johan has also chaired the Ethics Council of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, helping shape ethical investment practices for one of the world’s largest funds.

What does it take to lead on climate in a world shaped by distrust, geopolitics, and competing priorities? In this episode, former Colombian President Iván Duque shares how sustainability can be positioned not as a cost, but as a driver of competitiveness, and why leadership matters more than ever in turning ambition into action.

In this episode of Sustainable Edge
Host Joachim Nahem, Executive Chairman and Co-Founder at Position Green, sits down with Iván Duque, former President of Colombia, to explore what sustainability leadership looks like at the highest level of government.
During his presidency, Duque led one of Latin America’s most ambitious climate agendas, balancing economic growth, peacebuilding, and environmental protection. Under his leadership, Colombia expanded protected areas to cover more than a third of its territory and committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 51 percent by 2030 .
Today, as global cooperation weakens and political landscapes become more fragmented, the question is no longer just what needs to be done, but how to move forward in a world where trust is declining and priorities are shifting.

Learn about:
Sustainability as competitiveness Why climate ambition can strengthen economic positioning rather than weaken it
Leading through uncertainty What it takes to advance climate action in a world of declining trust and geopolitical fragmentation
The role of middle powers How countries like Colombia can shape global cooperation even without the largest economies leading
From ambition to implementation What enabled Colombia to pass climate legislation and scale environmental protection at speed
Markets and capital flows Why unlocking private finance and market mechanisms is critical for global climate progress
Bridging polarization How reframing sustainability conversations can create alignment across political and ideological divides
Long term leadership Why sustainability must be embedded into decision making as a core principle of governance and business

Beyond politics
Beyond his work in policy and sustainability, Iván Duque is also known for an unexpected passion: DJing. What started as a personal interest has become a way to connect with audiences in a completely different setting.
Read more

About Iván Duque
Iván Duque is the former President of Colombia and a global advocate for climate action and sustainable development. During his presidency, he led efforts to expand environmental protection, implement a national climate strategy, and position Colombia as a leader in biodiversity conservation. He currently serves as a trustee of the Science Based Targets initiative and holds advisory roles across leading global sustainability organisations, continuing to shape the conversation on climate, policy, and economic development .

What does accountability look like in a world shaped by AI, geopolitics, and rising stakeholder expectations? In this episode, Robin Hodess of GRI explores how the role of sustainability reporting is shifting and why companies that treat it as strategic data, not compliance, will be better positioned to compete.

In this episode of Sustainable Edge
Host Joachim Nahem, Executive Chairman and Co-Founder at Position Green, sits down with Robin Hodess, CEO of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), to explore how corporate accountability is being reshaped in a world defined by geopolitical tension, technological disruption, and rising expectations.
As the original standard setter for sustainability reporting—emerging from initiatives that followed major environmental crises like Exxon Valdez—GRI has played a central role in defining how companies measure and communicate their impact. But today, the landscape is far more complex. Accountability is no longer limited to environmental damage. It now includes issues such as data privacy, AI, social inequality, governance, and the broader role of business in society.

Robin Hodess unpacks how sustainability reporting is evolving from a compliance exercise into a critical source of strategic insight. She explains why businesses must move beyond fragmented frameworks and focus on what truly matters, using data to navigate risk, identify opportunities, and make better decisions.

Learn about:
From reporting to decision making: Why sustainability data is becoming essential for strategy, risk management, and long-term business growth
The expanding scope of accountability: How issues like AI, data centres, nature, and social impact are redefining what companies are responsible for
Complexity vs clarity: Why more frameworks and regulation have created confusion and how leaders can focus on what truly matters
Materiality in practice: How companies can prioritize the most relevant impacts without being overwhelmed by the breadth of ESG topics
Global fragmentation and standards: What rising geopolitical tensions mean for reporting requirements and why harmonisation matters more than ever
The business value of transparency: Why 73 percent of studies show a positive link between sustainability reporting and financial performance
Leadership and credibility: How companies can rebuild trust by moving beyond claims and focusing on evidence, progress, and accountability

About Robin Hodess
Robin Hodess is the CEO of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the world’s leading standard setter for sustainability reporting. With a career spanning finance, ethics, and global governance, she has held senior roles at Transparency International and other international organisations. Robin brings a long term perspective on corporate transparency, accountability, and the role of business in addressing global challenges. Under her leadership, GRI continues to shape how companies measure, manage, and communicate their impact in an increasingly complex world.

Resources from this episode:
From Impact to Income: How sustainability reporting affects the bottom Line:
Decoding biodiversity impacts: A practical guide to corporate reporting with the GRI Standards:
Case studies on reporting with GRI 101 and TNFD: