 Good evening everybody. My name is Andy Serwer and I am the editor-in-chief of Yahoo Finance And I want to welcome all of you to this really exciting panel called industries next frontier Before I introduce this great group and it is a great group and I know that because we had a great time in the green room together I just want to you know say a quick word about the topic this evening, which is You know it's a part of our lives and it's going to be a bigger part of all of our lives I think going forward and it really concerns the circular economy Which to my mind means instead of one-offs in terms of sustainability having a holistic approach To understanding how your company and in fact your life is Connected to the earth and to future generations. I mean it's a big topic But it is front and center right now their political implications social implications and of course economic implications And just quickly I was when I was doing some research on this panel. I I saw this McKinsey report on it and The line that sort of stuck with me is the circular economy aims to eradicate waste Not just from manufacturing processes as lean management aspires to do but systematically through the life cycles and uses of products And their components and it went on to talk about power drills being sold in China and instead of all new power drills being sold Refurbished power drills could be sold at a discount to incentivize Chinese consumers to buy that So let's get to our panel and what's really cool about the panel I think you'll see is that it's incredibly diverse and in many different ways And and so without further ado Peter Aguia fall. I hope I did that at least somewhat. Okay. Well. Oh goodness Thank you. Okay. See he's nice to me the CEO of Ikea, which is a great consumer brand global consumer brand that all of us know very well Next to Peter is priv bradu someone I've known for many many years from Silicon Valley and Arkansas Arkansas we'll get to that in a second very interesting this and And it's a it's a company that's at the very center of these issues Next to priv and next to me is Dev Devon Wenig who is the CEO of eBay another consumer company but a digital consumer company that all of us know very very well and To my left We're delighted to welcome dr. Vincent Baruta who is the minister of natural resources from the Republic of Rwanda and On his left is Jean Pascal tricoya who is the CEO and I probably didn't do that terribly This is the most polite panel in all of Davos to Americans Thank you. Merci. Who is the CEO of Schneider Electric? So let's give them a welcoming hand Dr. Baruta, I want to start with you and and ask you you know Rwanda has actually been at the forefront of This sustainability trend in the world You've taken a number of very interesting initiatives and you recently signed a Memorandum with the World Economic Forum. Can you talk about that a little bit, please? Yes, yesterday we signed a memorandum of understanding or a letter of intent with the World Economic Forum It is about the World Economic Forum to help us mainstreaming the secret economy into our policies our strategies and Make sure that the secret economy principles are brought into the DNA of our production and consumption Systems we aim at building an African alliance for on the secret economy and we work with World Economic Forum to do all these and make sure you have a network of countries Which are implementing the secret economy principles Awesome Peter Ikea is known for being and I mean this in the best possible way kind of a quirky company Meaning you guys think differently and I think a lot of us as customers of your company really celebrate that I think that's been one of the great appeals of your company How is the circular economy connected to what Ikea does is that is it at its core? I'd say like this that as you say quite a few of the customers knows our blue and yellow box is our stores But maybe they know less about what's happening behind the scenes We're working on a quite ambitious growth strategy, which is to grow Ikea together and while doing so We have also some five six years ago once and for all Decided that we would like to do so within the limits of the planet and actually we would like to grow and double Ikea in size, but we don't want to do it in a way that we are becoming less bad only towards the environment We actually would like to have a positive impact on people and the planet the way we the way we do so is that Basically we're working according to three areas the first one is that we try to stimulate our customers to live a more sustainable life at home We try to make our own operations sustainable and we try to have a positive impact on people People on the communities where we operate and when it comes to circularity I think this is one of the the newer things that we are starting to work upon How can we improve the circularity of our offering and of Ikea and the way we do a business and We've taken step forwards, but we're still young. We're still in the beginning There are many more things to do but in 10 days from now. We will introduce our first kitchen front Which is made out of recycled wood fiber and it's covered with plastic Coming from recycled PET bottles. So step by step. We're taking steps into Also becoming a more circular Ikea Devon, I'll be honest with you. You know, I'm always honest with you, right? Not always. Oh See they beat up on the media. I just keep beating up on the media. We'll go with that. Okay. Thank you When I first saw that you guys when you were on this panel I was wondering what was eBay doing, you know in a circular economy panel because you think about e-commerce It has nothing to do you just go online and buy stuff and what does that really have to do with a circular economy? But once I looked into it, there's definitely some some connectivity there, right? I think there's two things that are incredibly important The impact of technology and in particular technology platforms is a major theme here at Davos. It's obviously One of the most impactful Forces that's impacting billions of lives around the planet The way I look at it is eBay has two roles and I won't speak for Silicon Valley But I know that ethos runs deep in the technology industry One is our own company driving us to sustainability. It's really important that Corporations have a conscience and that they understand that their actions have implications on generations forward So you see a lot of announcements including from us about things like sustainable data centers and moving to zero carbon footprint In their power consumption and supply This is really important because the fastest growing sector of the economy is things like data centers and technology, right? But the unique thing about not just eBay But the sharing economy and platform companies and in some ways I'm proud to think of eBay as a pioneer in the sharing economy 21 years ago Is that it's a force magnifier when your platform promotes consumer sustainability? And if you think about although it's a minority of our business the resale of goods if you think about the role of car sharing services or Home sharing services. They are plays on capacity. They are about matching supply and demand. They are about Eliminating excess capacity from the economy that has a massive impact on Sustainability frankly much greater than individual companies going carbon-neutral So for us we look at our business as we have an internal role But arguably a much more important external role to drive over capacity out of the system And that has an incredibly powerful impact on sustainability Yeah, you think about things that people put up for sale at eBay and in some instances They would be throwing those things out into landfill But there's value there as evidenced by the fact that people pay for the stuff and then they use it themselves Someone else needs billions of dollars of value and it's not only the landfill impact It's also the item that doesn't need to be re-made right because Somebody is fine with last generation's iPhone and doesn't need a brand new one to be stamped out Both of those are important. Yeah, that's that's how you fit Um, Jean Pascal, maybe you can talk a little bit about let me ask you sort of the same table-setting question about Schneider and and how you fit into the circular economy sort of in a big picture way and People might be a little bit less familiar with your company Because it's not so much as a consumer brand as some of these guys over here. Yeah, of course Well, we've sometimes you don't know us But we are in your life at every moment what we do our efficiency on energy Connected solutions to power your home your building the manufacturing where you work on the infrastructure Where you travel on when you look at the world of energy, it's it's a world full of challenges because on one side We need to bring energy to today 1.3 billion people who don't have access to electricity on the next 2 billion That will join us in the next coming 30 years And at the same time we know we face a climate change challenge Where energy is the first of the way we produce and we consume energy today is a main contributor therefore we need To solve all of this to increase the efficiency of everything we do in the field of energy by a factor of three So what we do is that we apply technology we connect everything to the internet and we save and we share better The energy so what we do that we connect your home. We connect the buildings. We connect the manufacturing We connect that to big data so that you can apply more computing And get more services you were challenging me you're asking me about a news last week where we Acquired a company that's going to collect the data that that we have assembled of what you do and make sure that against your profile of Consumption we're going to source renewable energy to make sure that your consumption will be will become completely or fully based on unrenewable on Manufacturing to speak about circular economy Manufacturing is a big application for us. We automate production lines for our customers And of course what we want is to reduce the waste and make sure that we isolate the waste and Organize a recycling into the production lines. That's what we do right With all due respect to the other panelists. I Saved the best for last priv and you know priv is an actual practitioner of The circular economy so in other words these guys are participants, but she actually is kind of a cog and makes it work That's what she does. That's the core the very core what she does and maybe you guys aren't familiar with blue But it's a really cool company. So Priva. I'd really like you to talk to us about what you guys do sure So actually, let me lay a little bit of the the background So, you know, we're here talking about the fourth industrial revolution Talking about exponential technologies accelerating technologies accelerating pace of accelerating technologies And yet, you know, I'm not sure there's as much reflection about what happens. What's a dark side of this accelerating? force on the In the world of technology and so six years ago We founded blue oak with the mission of making the the technology sector more Sustainable and and the way we do that is sort of stepping back and looking at what goes into powering technologies Obviously, it's the world of electrons That's the thing that we think of most often but it's also the world of atoms and molecules and and some of the most valuable parts of electronics are Metals such as copper gold silver palladium About 10% of the world's gold supply give or take goes into electronics About 30% of the world's silver supply goes into electronics And if you actually take let's say a ton of cell phones You can actually extract the same amount of gold as a hundred tons of gold or and as it's again So how many cell phones for a hundred tons? So a ton of cell phones Will give you the same amount of gold as a hundred tons of gold or hmm I'm gonna start a recycling business and go ahead like that. That's cool But as you sort of think about that on one hand You actually look at the other side and you look at about you look at how You know dirty gold for example is becoming the cause celebra in in the mining world and as you as you look at sort of the consumers of the future generations and Or our current generation I think they're very value-based customers and they really care about sort of the values of the companies that they're purchasing from so We're trying to sort of bridge the gap between the technology and luxury goods sectors and the atoms and molecules that power Those technologies and make that entire cycle more sustainable So you take electronic components parts computers laptops phones and Do what with them specifically so we take the the electronic scrap We essentially take it through a proprietary furnace that we have and we extract The metal value out of it while sustainably dealing with all of the other elements the plastics There are fractures. So it's a complete closed loop cycle that we operate And then we sell the high-value metals into the luxury goods sectors and the technology sectors really interested in How many different types of elements and metals or what what are some you said gold? What else do you get out of this stuff? So we get copper so in terms of that the valuable metals you've got copper gold silver palladium But you actually have about 60 elements or give or take again that are comprised within electronics crap You know, would we like to focus on recoveries and many more so there's tin. There's iron. There's nickel. There's aluminum This is just a number of different elements How well You know, you can focus on any one of those is obviously dependent on the pricing on any given element And that sort of goes into sort of how markets evolve to to embracing circular economies all right this is being streamed globally on Yahoo Finance right now this session and It's a little afternoon in North America in the United States and in about 23 hours plus Donald Trump will be sworn in as the new president of the United States and Devin your company recently signed a letter to President Trump regarding climate change and I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about Why you guys did that there are a number of a lot of companies and several a hundred or so that did But can you talk to us about your thinking there? You know, I think it's about transparency and commitment words matter, but action matters a lot more and Particularly for Silicon Valley. This was a letter a lot of tech companies signed on to Not to repeat myself, but this is the fastest growing sector of the economy software is swallowing the world and With that comes responsibility With that comes a responsibility to understand the implications of those actions here in Davos We've been talking a bit about the responsibility that we ensure that the technology revolution doesn't net eliminate jobs or create more income inequality equally sustainability and Planet that we can give to our children and our children's children is a huge Obligation on all of us so without getting into the detail of the letter It is an obligation to drive our companies in our industry To take carbon chain to take climate change seriously to move to zero carbon footprints And you know, we're happy to do that along with a number of our big technology peers right Dr. Baruta Excuse me. I wanted to ask you about some of the specific initiatives that President Kogame has undertaken one that was interesting to me was banning plastic bags and You know Plastic bags are used by almost everybody all over the world You know, I've been in countries though in Africa where you see plastic bags just all over the place and at the very least It's an eyesore at the very worst. It's toxic for You know humans animals plants But there's an economic cost. Can you talk a little bit about how your government made that decision? Yes, so my government took that decision for the reason we have mentioned leader pollution of water bodies pollution of soil and many other problems related to polythene plastic bags That decision was taken It has created the challenges in terms of packaging But it has created opportunities because you have seen a recycling industries Being established today. We have five recycling plastic recycling plants and that has brought Jobs opportunities and we have also seen people investing in alternative packaging solutions, which are eco-friendly. So I Think what we have gained in buying in binding plastics is much bigger than what you have the challenges you have and we still facing So when you guys did this did I mean obviously I guess the plastic bag companies Objected did did was there an did the ordinary citizens get upset about this as well? Ordinary citizens don't have any problem. Those who have problems are people in industries. So those one have Been complaining but with time everybody understand that we gained more by burning plastic rather than keeping it because it has created opportunities and we were we still looking for solutions for industries for packaging and that creates new Opportunities right business and so these sustainable packaging companies I mean that's an opportunity for them to grow and to you know recyclable renewable Fibers and things like that to make that kind of thing. Yeah, can I can I just sure please on what the minister said? I you know, I think we we often tend to take sort of a very west-centric view of the world about technology pioneering, you know the circular economy and I think sometimes there's wisdom and stepping back and looking at many places in the world Which actually thrive on circular economies, you know a company a country that I've little context about Is India and you know you look at places like India and there is no concept of waste, right? You you utilize every asset as much as you possibly can because that's actually more efficient and derives more value Again, if you look at sort of the automotive industry and this is sort of around the world You know, they've got some of the highest recycling rates, you know, and that's something to learn from so I I just think that You know while their technologies enable us to achieve the values that that our generation represents I think there's a lot of wisdom from from many places and many business models that have come before us To just just that humility. I think it's really important I like that idea of different nations having different real values almost when it comes to this and history Sweden, you know Has it has a different take as well, right? Yeah, for sure Sweden is one of the countries that quite early introduced CEO to tax in order to encourage customers to go for renewables to to go for wind solar and to To encourage the transformation of the society. I think we attack here We've of course been inspired about those kind of Initiatives that have been taken we have decided that by 2020 we will produce the same amount of renewable By our own renewable sources predominately wind and solar As we consume totally as a group We've invested now in 341 Wind turbines and it's actually so for the first moment in time. We have as many wind turbines as we have stores Which is quite funny. So behind the scenes the IKEA group has also turned in to be You could say a small renewable energy company But we produced 3.2 terawatt hours last year of our own sustainable Wind due to that we get the inspirations from countries from other companies and through our own initiatives If I am please may add to that It's our business right to to provide technologies to save energy and to organize this this circular economy But we really are playing that to ourselves and And it's it's striking that you can always progress you can always find something to do different on to the cheaper so We every every three years we reduce our energy Consumption by 10% and you always say it's going to be very very difficult for the next cycle That's actually how many I'm sorry I mean, how many years do you say every year every three years every three years so you grind on your grind on your measure You identify and on the on the data Enables you to be more and more specific and more and more precise on what you do And and we voted ourselves also to be carbon neutral in the next five years And that's really by saving under the same time of setting on sourcing better and producing better the energy And you would say okay. It's all for communication If you are very cynical Just for your piano, I mean the things that we as Industrialists don't like is to be submitted to risk and we live in a world where zero price three years ago was one blood plus dollars Two years after it was 30 plus dollars now It's 50 dollars and people hate that to be submitted. We hate that right? Yeah, the top of it makes our products better We operate we do 50% of our business in in the emerging world. I I live in China today I live most of my career in emerging country. So The motivation that you find country by country can be very different In India, for instance, you have to operate sometimes with in scarcity. You don't have energy all the time So you have to be operating your operations when there is no power grid when there is a Default of supply in China and I live in in one of those cities You want to reduce the pollution on the particles and that's a very strong motivation to do things to do things better So at the end of the day, would it be for the economics? Would it be for the air quality? Would it be because you have no choice because the supply is not yet there There is a very strong motivation to get these carbon neutralities or savings on on those savings on The other thing I would like to mention then is that it has been a strong incentive to innovation Because because constraint is really the mother of a lot of innovation when you have no choice Suddenly you imagine new things that you had not thought about before On today, for instance, we've developed technologies in India That were exporting everywhere including the mature world to store energy on to shave the peaks on to supply energy in an autonomous manner So I think there is it's more than a than a fashion or responding to KPIs on it's really a major trend for innovation I think I think in reality what we see is that you know if we start with the customer in our case to many people Living around the the planet in one of the countries where we operate We see if we do things that are really good for them The vision of ours is to create a better everyday life for the many people if we do something That's good for them then in the second step We need to figure out how can we make that good for IKEA too and if you do it that way It's a lot easier to end up on the right side of the equation that if you think the other way around We have one example that I just love and that is a couple of years ago. We decided to ban Selling traditional incandescent bulbs and they've been in the market since the 18th century more or less And it's not a very efficient way to produce light And now we have LED technology the most efficient way to to produce light We sold we converted our total lighting range took out all the incandescent bulb replaced them with LEDs By doing so we were able to direct the volumes to our suppliers because customers did would like to have some light Our colleagues in the supply chain could convert the value chain And we could invest optimized production the LED bulb that costed 12 euros is now soon down to one So we've been able to shave off 90% of the cost for the customers and the beauty of the equation is that it's really good for the environment too Right. It consumes 85 less percent energy meaning more money in the wallet for the customer But it also means 85 less 85 percent less carbon emissions So at the end of the day good for the customer good for the planet and you know what good for IKEA too I just you know come back and tie it back to Andy the point that you raised about you know The time it is in the United States of America and a large you know large theme that that sort of being talked about is is job creation and meaningful employment and one of the Incredible things about the circular economy is that it's actually a distributed business model, right? These are regional local As opposed to necessarily, you know the traditional global model when you look at the sharing economy It's sort of it allows a number of people to participate within that That region or that city or that town when I look at a business like mine. We're really proud to be Based in Arkansas You know where we've got people with great work ethic But you know we're also really eager to reskill and retrain And so I think just the the beauty of sort of the the cost imperatives that it allows us to achieve the customer Driven values that you can satisfy but also just the by nature They're distributed regional and and promote that kind of rescaling retraining and job creation Yeah, I think it's really fascinating because we're talking about the disruption of technology and when it comes to employment That's actually a code phrase for lack loss of jobs. I mean, that's that's what you know Technology does quite frankly in one regard to employment and that's so interesting that the circular economy is Can be conceived can be seen as a job creator that way and a distributed job creator to your point It's interesting also privy that you mentioned employees because we've talked a lot about Customers as we as we well should but I want to talk about some other constituencies that all of you have to deal with which are Employees and in some instances shareholders and so Devin I want to ask you about the dialogue Between your employees and the dialogue between shareholders when it comes to a circular economy. What do they tell you? what do you tell them and Does it move the needle in terms of your relationship? I think it's an easier conversation for us because as we said before it is our business and You know, I was it's very heartening to hear the story from Schneider and from Ikea because I think that When corporations or CEOs give rhetoric to issues, but they're incented on an entirely different set of things their employees know that They you know people cut through that fairly quickly and at the end of the day Let's not kid ourselves. These are corporations and our main job is to create value for our owners But that doesn't mean there's not a social mission and if that's and if that social mission is linked to business Like you just heard here and like I said before Court of eBay is driving that reuse economy driving that circular economy that in some ways at least digitally we invented When that happens our shareholders are happy when we grow our reuse business. We make money. That's our business So you try to link the mission of the company and the responsibility to the world With the profit incentive and that's when you really get things moving I want to ask you I'm Pascal the same question, but Peter. I'm gonna ask you come on Come on. You got rid of light bulbs incandescent light bulbs, but you're a private company where your company owned by a foundation Do you think it's easier? I think To do these kinds of things. Yes and no, of course the advantage is that we don't really need to think short term We can act in a much more longer term We can strategize and we can invest in a way that we don't have the kind of the quarterly axe Yeah Hunting us, but of course on the other end the only source of capital that we have is the money that we generate ourselves Hmm, right. So in a way we have to make more disciplined Maybe it means that we have to make the money before we we invest them, right? So they're pros and con I think with all ownership models ours is certainly Proven to be successful over time so far. I think it will be so in the future, too So I'm Pascal I do want to ask you about the same question that I asked Devin in terms of the Consistuances your employees and your shareholders and the dialogue was saying we're doing these things like reducing energy costs Does it move the needle? I thought that was fascinating when you made that point about oil prices Who in their right mind would want to be beholden to an input that goes from 150 to 30 to 53? I mean, right? You'd want to do everything you could to get away from that. I agree with that. There you go That was your point But again, so the shareholders and yeah, I like very much this question. So We we we quantify everything we do in Sustainable development and we have invented the barometer in which we've put the the different constituencies of it on the whole companies work into it. So and on the we publicize this with our quadrilles. So it's as important as the financials and on Executives on everybody in the company as a financial incentive, which is balancing the economics Leaning to our progress in sustainable development. So it has really become a force of mobilization in the company Do I believe that this drives the behavior of the people those financials? I don't think so I think people are just motivated to make the company better on on better impacting the society but it brings a Logic it brings a structure. We are all looking at the same direction on the same indicators And we publicize it to to to the shareholders. So then you've got this funny discussion where shareholders tell you Well, of course we're interested by the economics, but the company has a different mission, which is more complete So which you should balance the economics with other indicators on the next day They tell you yeah, but your incentive was to I respect to your economics because in fact your sustainable development So I think I it's really a dialogue that we have more and more I just regret one thing is that I don't think there is enough weighing on this aspect in the choice or in the dialogue with investors Because at the end of the day sustainable development means that the company you are investing in is much as risky It's serving the right thing So as an investor and especially long-term investors this dimension of preparation of the future on being in line with with the interest of the planet and the society and the communities of the people who work with you is Extremely important. So we we've pushed that to an extreme Publicity on an extreme consistency across the company. I think that's great that notion that your master of your own destiny much more if you are a Circular company or in the circular economy and that's that's real by the way You said you wish your only regret is there a more weight on the sustainability part, right? But if you're the chief executive No, we do it just in a dialogue that we have with our investors Which is a great dialogue, which is they know us very well We meet we've been meeting for no more than 10 years every quarter, so But but I think this has to develop even more I Think also to to build on that so far the demands on disclosure from governments from Investors from institutions has been quite limited But of obviously this is going to be an area that's going to increase Substantially possibly will also be a demand a legislation where you're required as a company to do so And of course if you're then pioneering And and driving these questions at an early stage by your own belief Eventually the companies are going to be in a situation that they will create more share all the way and value at the end So I would say the trend sorry the trend For big public companies is there increasingly large institutional investors are asking for social and environmental impact Yeah, and it was on the fringe five years ago I wouldn't call it the majority But there's very few shareholder meetings you go to now at least large institutions Where it does not come up in the conversation. I think that's that spot on I mean because it used to be sort of the NGOs It would rattle the cage and say oh you can't you know have be so linked to fossil fuels But now to your point is Jean Pascal that it's it's coupled with risk Right and so to free yourself just for instance from oil And other sort of practices it is a better ROI right I think I think so and I also think that Many investors also Recognize their role in sustainability of the planet part of it is we're all in this together And we have to fix it together if the chain of ownership and corporations and customers is not aligned you get Friction right right, you know what what I will say Andy is that you know, I think As a as a young startup what I what I really care about is this moving away from being Investor and shareholder driven and really thinking about it as being Customer and stakeholder driven. Yeah, and so when you look at sort of companies like methods soap as an example Just comes to mind, you know people buy that brand I buy that brand people will pay a premium on that brand because Because of the values that it represents and because they relate to those values Obviously, it's a little bit harder when you will be to be But I do think there's something, you know when we look at precious metals and when we work with partners in the in the luxury good space It is because they recognize that their customers care more and more about the values behind And what they're buying so I think in some way if you can tie it back to the customer The shareholder with that will follow, you know, it's interesting because this rise of the circular economy is simultaneous with the decline of the orthodoxy of Shareholder return above all, I mean that was because it used to be to your point-priv CEOs would say that's the only job. I have is to maximize shareholder value I guess what I'm saying is you can maximize shareholder. Yes True sort of this being at the at the center of Creating value for your company the one counter. I would sort of add is you know in some of these debates about globalization You know and what that means when when you look at companies particularly that are producing things One thing that becomes hard when you look at sort of competitiveness of prices within within your ecosystem versus outside I think it's pricing externalities So one of the things that we hear in the electronics industry for example is that it doesn't affect us directly because we were sort of a Downstream player, but midstream players one of the things that they struggle with is they say, you know It's hard to Compete with processing prices here when you've got countries around the world that are willing to import this for free And and the questionable practices that are employed in terms of you know recovering values within those countries So it's hard to compete Sometimes within certain industries when you've when you've got externalities that aren't priced in and so it's almost like You know tying this to this team of globalization I think you need to be on an even playing field in order to be competitive in some way Right few of few elements on the top of if you're able to operate the same process with half of the resources You're going to be more competitive than your competitor Especially when you go into new economies where resources are more scarce second point thing the problem that we all have is to attract the best talents because the company is not better than the Some of the collective game of its people and people like the problem of of this this This time is a lack of sense sometimes lack of why why do I do all that job on Giving that sense of working for the planet on community Re-gives another kind of sense on direction to the work you do on on the third point is that very often technology is associated To job cuts if I look at energy Today we are putting figures around that but Renewable employs five times more people than the old world of energy for a kilowatt hour So just because one thing is that you replace consumption of resources by the deployment of people that will Maintain on organized energy underground. I do want to get back to you about China by the way I'm Pascal and and I also want to put out there that we will be doing a Q&A in a few minutes So get your questions ready. I'm sure you have a bunch and I also don't want to neglect Dr. Baruta and and talk to you a little bit about the role of government here because you know It's all about public-private partnership ultimately And you know getting back to some of the initiatives you did I was reading here about you Kigali Green City initiative And the funner while green fund. So I my question is how do you actually go about implementing? These initiatives and how do you work with the private sector to make this stuff actually happen? the role of every government is to put in place policies laws and regulations and strategies in place so in Rwanda, we are doing our green growth and climate resilience strategy in 2011 and we establish our green fund for nirgwa is the arm to implement and to fund to finance these Implementation of that strategy and our green fund is working with a private sector. It is funding private sector the private people are bringing in bringing Project proposals and we cannot do anything Without the private sector anyway, even at the policy making level we need to consult all the stakeholders including the private sector so the private sector is at all the stages we are taking in adopting policies and putting place the strategies and Implementing them. How would you describe your relationship with the private sector? in your country the government's relationship We have a very good relationship with the private sector as an example Like now we are preparing for The next fiscal year When we prepare the budget we need to consult the private sector Need to have meetings and every sector has to meet with the private sector which is involved really in In that particular sector we consult them we talk to them about the fiscal measures Which I like it to be taken with a new fiscal year and we Have their input and we take them into consideration and We can move together when we start implementation Wow, I think was here an enormous development in the interaction between businesses and governments today If I just relate back five years it was To me I think my impression was very much that governments were a little bit concerned About the raising demands to to businesses and that businesses would be against it. I think with paris Things changed businesses raised their voice They said clearly that we want an agreement We stand behind you and we will do our part to implement it So the interaction between businesses and governments today are I would say radically different Than it were a couple of years ago, but of course varies wildly country by country, right? Sure, yes, of course It varies from country to country but still the overall movement and the trend is clearly the same across the globe Let me stick with you peter and ask you I kind of played a I pulled the fat. Well, let's just put these guys to the test I guess is the way to put it I Did a search a news search for these companies to see if there are any recent news stories about them That pertained to the circular economy and sustainability and I have to say There were so these companies were walking the talk. So that's that's nice to hear For you peter I thought this was really interesting Swedish Furniture giant Ikea announced monday that would be this monday That they finished installing solar panels with their new rent in washington the state of washington in the u.s Location creating the largest rooftop solar installation anywhere in the state And I looked at this it is massive. I don't know how many square feet it is but And then there are you know other big stores like cosco, which is headquartered in washington state as well So Is this something you're doing around the globe? Well, it is as I said earlier We have committed ourselves by 2020. We will produce the same amount of energy as the group is consuming We have invested in 730 000 PV installations that we predominantly put on our rooftops And we have soon the same amount of Windmills as we have stores and it would probably be even more going forward So for sure it is and I think there's a continuation of that story because the fact that we are now a big purchaser of PV Solar panels what we have started with now is also to start offering them to our customers We started off two years ago in the uk. We moved on to switzerland We kicked it off again in the Netherlands last week So now a customer can enter one of our stores to buy towels or a new bookcase But I can also come home with the rooftop installation of a complete sustainable PV installation that will be installed to their homes. So it's a it's a It's a lovely thing that we do and I'm really proud of it but Again, there's more to do for us in Activate and stimulate customers to live a more sustainable life at home And the other news story by the way for our kid in the past week. Did you should we make a point? Go ahead. I'm sorry Yes, I wanted to give an example of how our green fund is working with the private sector and the relationship with between the government and the private sector our green fund has Supported the establishment of an e-west plant which is going to be inaugurated next month And it has given around one million u.s. Dollars But that plant will not be operated by the government to be operated by private company And thus we resolve our problem to deal with e-west At the same time The private sector is going to be involved in the private company is going to do business And doing so we we solve the problem of the e-west and we give we create jobs And the private sector will be part of that journey. And where is this again? I'm sorry We are integrating the plant next month. Okay Sounds like a model That's great Any questions out there from the audience at this point? We've got one right up here in the front row Hi, I'm a global shaper, Daisy Guo from Shanghai Hub. I'm a very big fan of IKEA And you know the booming growth of platforms in China. They have furniture platforms They now open their offline shops to curate the loop of consuming experience of lifestyle And I really live I really love IKEA. I want to know that what's your strategy to maintain your competitiveness in china I think it's a it's a good question We've been in china for for many years. We started our retail operation there in the end of the 90s We have grown and develop over the years. We today have 21 stores and in adjacent that we have three of our own shopping centers So to continue to to grow and develop our business in china is of course Uh essential and we do so by a number of initiatives We try to continue to work in an efficient way to get cost out of our Of our setup that doesn't contribute to customer value. We try to make IKEA more accessible by Introducing e-commerce. We have just started off in Shanghai and Later on we will start doing that in total china But of course we will also continue to build Pickup points for customers ordering their products online or through our store and building more stores We still only have 21 stores in china And if you compare in sweden, we have 20 stores On tomorrow with 10 million people living in sweden and 20 stores are basically two stores per million inhabitants and in china we have 21 stores on one point something Billion inhabitants. So of course we're still just very small We're just at the beginning and we have so much more to do to really to create a better everyday life for the many people in china And people like to go to ikeas in china to relax, right? You know those stories, right? Yeah Right, right and speaking of china before we get to another question jp. You said you live there now Yeah, well, we um asia peck has become our biggest region so I transferred to Hong Kong actually Six years ago And we manage All company with a team which is scattered around the world part in in the americas and a part in europe But I reside with a part of my team in In china, yeah So is it harder or easier? How is that the challenge to be a circular company different in china? I we've got many chinese friends here that would be in a better position to But for you from your experience. I mean running snipe from our experience I mean Things are not fundamentally different. I mean china is just huge And on the speed of development has been much faster than in any other country So the challenges that you are facing and we are facing as an in the we employ 26 000 people in china On more than 20 000 in india. So I'm just saying that the problems are the same. They are just 20 times bigger That's all right Other questions Have one right here a couple over on the side So a real really great session One question that I have is when you have strategy from the top about circular economy. How do you Make it down like how do you make the message down and make sure Especially for like all of the companies are global like ikea having Thousands of stores. How do you make sure every single place that gets Replicated well, I you know like with most things it's not what you expect It's what you inspect and it's about setting goals and targets and having people really clear to my point before It's a lot easier when your business goals And your circular economy or your social goals are aligned Giving a speech and saying we want to do something and then setting goals that are antithetical to that Is inauthentic and it inevitably leads to no progress So for us, it's you know a percentage of our reuse business It's a percent of data center sustainability. Those are very clear goals that people in our company are paid on I think from our sake of of course as managers and leaders you kind of lead by example And what do you say what you do what you talk about normally the organization tends to talk about too But at ikea we're also we are a Company with clear values and with the clear ikea culture And we're really not the top-down company. So a lot of the Force and and the the driving force and the initiative actually comes from our many co-workers Having one idea of how they can do something a little bit better than they did yesterday. For instance, how can we Store save recycle some of the packaging material that's coming around our pallets Once the goods are being delivered into our stores and they start to think about it We start to work together with it and then suddenly we realize that we can recycle it And actually turn into a new ikea product for instance the new tomat or tomato spray bottle that's now entirely made out of recycled ikea Wrapping plastic so Working together not being top-down, but of course the leaders have a role to play in leading the company Do you want to comment you know thousands of it's it's a very good question because it's actually quite complex The first thing that you have to map what you are doing end to end If I take our example 70 percent of what we sell is produced by partner suppliers So when we speak about our carbon footprint or when we speak about recyclability you have to take an an end-to-end view of the whole cycle So when we go to carbon footprint you we go back to the mine of copper that enter in our products later The second thing which I join you is really empower people once you have mapped the issue And you've said kpi that everybody's working roughly in the same direction Leave the people on the site in a plant in an office Proposal solutions on on working it together on the third thing is really celebrate success and share Replicate cookie paste what's working? On the non-invented years probably the biggest barrier to progress today because there are plenty of solutions technologies are here It's just a speed of adoption. Which is which is a problem. We are the problem Before I get to the next question. I just want to ask you prib just quickly So how did you get to arkansas and for those of you who are not familiar with the united state geography? It's a fairly remote place Um, actually we we run a competitive process. We had partners owners shareholders Who helped us with sort of competitively mapping various straight states in the u.s And arkansas actually came out really on the top in terms of The the key metrics that go into sort of our cost structure Which are electricity. So it's a really low power cost ease of doing business I mean just fantastic sort of support from from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality skilled labor. I mean, they're all sort of trained for the kind of for the kind of work that we're doing Our largest investor is the pension fund of arkansas an incredibly forward-looking Investor has been a huge supporter of everything that we're doing and The entire ecosystem within arkansas is actually really committed to making Oceola arkansas the recycling capital of the world and Not just because of what we're doing. We also have an $1.5 billion steel mill right next to us with the same similar shareholder structure And it's creating jobs in the part of america that our new president is keen on so but you were doing that way before Right Hello, this is sohara. I'm a global shaper from bangladesh So I think the overall there is the understanding that the moral imperative is perhaps not good enough for businesses to go green And there has to be a business case of some sort for them to transition I was wondering if you could share what would be some of the good measures that governments around the world could take To promote such kind of a transition to more sustainable practices for businesses. Thank you You'll ask both the private sector and the public sector that question, right? Anyone want to take that? I think Today I would really encourage Governments to be clear to companies that they need to disclose Their environmental impact. I think that could actually help us quite a lot. Many companies Are doing quite a lot of things but are quite a few that doesn't so by Actually disclosing the environmental impact of their their business I think we could actually stimulate a bigger movement than we we do today The business cases are there the investments we are doing Makes a lot of sense from a financial perspective. So I think it's just that we need to have More of a level playing field in that area Private sector go we'll go to the public Is a stated area the role of a government is to put in place the policies the strategies and the regulations and and doing so Starting from now if you adult the secret economy principles We need to put them in the policies and the strategies and put in place the The regulation which is needed to have those principles Implemented and of course on the other side, maybe the government we need to put in place incentives To make sure everybody adopts The new principles based on the policies, but also based on Incentives which are in place I can give you an example. We use When we approve a new project we use to ask for environmental impact assessment And in doing so If we adopt the secret economy principles, we can take that into consideration in that particular report or ask Put in place new requirements To be fulfilled by any new investor for a new project and from that You can move forward Well, we are just about out of time here And I hope you guys all enjoyed this panel as much as I did Just to summarize a few points. I think that, you know, the circular economy ultimately should not only be Even or as good as a traditional company, but even better ultimately in terms of all kinds of KPIs Even ones the shareholders like right I think that working with governments public private partnerships is absolutely essential And then finally, I think inclusiveness With all constituencies Is incredibly important So I I think those are some really good takeaways and you know I think it's great to emulate these leaders up here on the stage And if you guys can take that back with you and your companies and your countries and your NGOs Whoever you represent, I think that this could really do a lot of great stuff for the world So please join me in thanking this great panel