Leading Through Uncertainty: How Procurement Builds Momentum When the World Keeps Changing
If Part 1 of the Sustainability Panel at CPO Outlook 2025 focused on how large organizations structure their sustainability work, Part 2 turned toward something harder to capture in a slide: the lived experience of leading in uncertainty.
The conversation shifted into a reflective exchange between Maria Mollberg (Essity), Katarina Jönsson (Solar), Kjersti Wilhelmsen (Equinor) – David Frydlinger (Cirio) sharing his views initially – exploring how sustainability leadership is changing, what teams need, and how procurement can stay resilient when expectations move faster than operating models.
This discussion echoed many themes raised earlier this year at EBG | Xperience Gothenburg, where leaders described acting in imperfect conditions, balancing ambition with resources, and navigating constant regulatory movement. The panel carried those reflections forward with real honesty.
The Shift From “What” to “How”
While the first half focused on organizational structures, the panel’s dialogue moved toward behavior, judgment, and the everyday work behind sustainability.
All four agreed on this:
Sustainability is no longer about defining targets — it is about enabling people to move toward them, consistently and realistically.
This requires clarity, grounded leadership, and a shared understanding of why sustainability matters beyond compliance.
What It Takes to Lead in Imperfect Conditions
1. Transparency requires trust — not pressure
A recurring theme was the tension between increasing demands for evidence, verification, and traceability… and the reality that suppliers rarely open up under fear or strict compliance language.
- Maria described how Essity’s long-term relationships and clear, early expectations enable openness.
- Katarina emphasised conversation, not control — sustainability must be something suppliers can talk about without feeling blamed.
- Kjersti spoke about building credibility through consistent follow-up, not one-off audits.
- David tied this to the legal landscape: transparency is only effective when suppliers see value in it.
Across all perspectives, the insight was the same:
Transparency is relational.
It flows when partners trust that the information will be used constructively.
2. Cross-functional alignment is no longer optional
All four panelists pointed to how sustainability now touches legal, compliance, procurement, operations, ethics, R&D and corporate sustainability.
The conversation revealed:
- Essity’s sustainability targets connect naturally to procurement decisions across climate, materials, ethics and packaging.
- Solar’s sourcing managers now carry both sustainability dialogue and corrective follow-up.
- Equinor connects ESG and compliance tightly with SSU (sustainability, safety and security), legal and regulatory affairs.
- David highlighted that legislation increasingly expects companies to show how responsibility is shared internally — not only outputs.
This echoed the Xperience Gothenburg insight that sustainability action depends on structures that support collaboration, not structures that create handovers.
3. Sustainability work is emotional work
This surfaced gently but clearly.
- Maria described the constant learning required when working across 100+ countries and thousands of suppliers.
- Katarina emphasised the courage sourcing managers need to hold difficult dialogues with suppliers.
- David highlighted that responsibility frameworks are rooted in ethics as much as law.
These reflections showed that sustainability is not only operational — it is deeply connected to people’s values, identity and motivation.
4. Working ahead of regulation is becoming a necessity
Without naming specific legislation, the panel acknowledged the broader context:
the world is moving toward stronger expectations of corporate accountability, and global frameworks — including those being shaped during COP30 — will demand more maturity, not less.
Rather than anticipating specific regulatory outcomes, the panel focused on what organizations can do:
- Strengthen due-diligence processes now.
- Build supplier relationships that support transparency.
- Organize cross-functional teams to share responsibility.
- Invest in people’s capability to make informed, ethical judgments.
- Avoid relying solely on technical compliance.
This was fully aligned with the spring Xperience discussions, where many Nordic leaders said the real challenge isn’t regulation itself — it’s building the internal capacity to respond meaningfully.
Shared Reflections That Carried the Panel Forward
A few high-level insights emerged as the discussion unfolded:
• Progress comes from realistic prioritization
Organizations cannot act on everything at once.
The panel encouraged choosing actions where procurement has true influence — and doing them thoroughly.
• Sustainability needs space — not heroics
Solar’s decision to reduce the supplier load per sourcing manager resonated strongly.
Maria’s reminder that a small team must support hundreds procurement colleagues underscored the need for integrated structures.
• Human rights work requires presence
Kjersti’s reflections on worker interviews and corrective actions grounded sustainability back into human impact.
• Legislation alone cannot drive judgment
David’s reflections on responsibility frameworks underlined that sustainability cannot survive if companies outsource judgment to systems.
• Imperfection is not failure — it is the reality of global value chains
All panelists spoke with humility.
None claimed to have solved sustainability.
All showed that progress requires consistency, not certainty.
Closing Reflection
What made this conversation extra valuable was not the scale of the organizations represented, nor the complexity of their supply chains. It was the shared understanding that sustainability is a long-term capability, built day by day through people, structures and relationships.
In a world with increased expectations on climate, human rights and corporate accountability — procurement leaders are not waiting for perfect conditions. They are doing what they can with what they have, learning as they go, and building momentum where influence is real.
That is the work.
And that is what the panel captured:
Sustainability is not a destination — it is a practice, lived through countless decisions across global supply networks.
Networking with EBG
These conversations continue across our EBG | Xperience 2026 Focus Days and into CPO Outlook 2026, October 14–15, where leaders meet to work through challenges with honesty, realism and ambition.