Following the success of last year’s ONE HOME, ONE PLANET (OHOP) event with Ingka (the owner of most IKEA stores), we’re proud to have once again been a part of driving action around Ingka’s ambitious sustainability strategy, to become ‘people and planet positive’ by 2030, and this time virtually.
Before the world was hit by COVID-19, the now annual OHOP event was planned to take place face-to-face in IKEA’s leading sustainability store in Greenwich, London. But of course, 2020 was far from what the world expected. So, no one would have blamed Ingka if they had decided to simply cancel this year’s event.
But they didn’t. Instead, recognising the continued urgency of sustainability challenges, such as climate change, Ingka’s bold leadership, with its strong bias for action, asked us to tap into our online superpowers.
Held over two days (2nd – 3rd September), OHOP 2020 took place with close to 1,000 attendees glued to their laptops, including a group of 300 stakeholders ideating in small breakout open innovation sessions.
From engagement to collaboration
Over the last year, we’ve been working with Ingka leaders from across the organisation to identify the right topics to action (and the right stakeholders to work with).
In a world of sustainability challenges, we didn’t try to boil the ocean. Instead, we focused on topics in which Ingka can truly make an impact, hand-in-hand with its stakeholders.
During OHOP itself, Inkga leaders teamed up with experienced Xynteo facilitators to work alongside external multi-sector participants in breakouts focusing on topics as diverse as accelerating the uptake of renewable energy, building circular communities, and up-skilling/re-skilling for the future of work.
Together, using a number of virtual tools, we worked to find and shape new opportunities in their topics and practical pathways to move them forward. As a result, we are proud to report these groups transformed new thinking into purposeful, collaborative action.
To fuel the innovation work, participants were challenged and inspired in plenary sessions by a collection of engaging and thought-provoking speakers and artists. Each contribution enabled an interplay between the rational and the emotional, creating moments of gratitude and triumph, while also dispelling myths and seeking opportunity.
Despite being in a virtual space, it was clear that participants had a thirst for connecting with new people and having the opportunity to exchange ideas. After months of global lockdowns, participants were ignited to be able to create something positive together. Paired with Ingka’s commitment to action, there was a real sense that the future is being built right now, and that we can all be a part of it.
Leadership in challenging times
Following the event we were left with a real sense of urgency towards purposeful action, and with the confidence to make it happen. The fact that OHOP went ahead shows great commitment to solving our world’s biggest challenges, come what may.
"The IKEA vision is to create a better everyday life for the many people, and we believe those lives are truly better when they’re lived sustainably. This means rethinking and inspiring changes in lifestyle and consumption, as well as adopting new ways of working. Collaboration is at the heart of this approach.”
Ingka’s CEO Jesper Brodin, shared his take on the power of collaboration.
He added, “To that end we’re really proud to have partnered once again with the world-class Xynteo on our One Home One Planet initiative, bringing together the very best of both our companies to accelerate action.”
“We are so grateful to be working with Ingka”, said Chester Cunningham, Managing Director at Xynteo. “They took a leap of faith in going virtual, but understood there was no time to delay when it comes to saving our one home, our one planet. As it turned out, virtual is not only the ‘new normal’, but it also revealed itself to be incredibly effective - opening up the potential to involve even more stakeholders in the open innovation process.”
Through an incredible powerhouse show of speakers, thought provoking discussions and collaborative action, we are closer to realising Ingka’s goal of becoming ‘people and planet positive’ by 2030.
We now look forward to many more transformative experiences with Ingka, who have announced that they will do a series of country-level “mini-OHOPs” across their 30 markets this coming year.
Our team at Xynteo will absorb all the great learnings from this year’s OHOP, and keep working with clients who want to transform themselves, their organisations and the systems in which they operate. Stay tuned!
Watch some of the highlights below:
To learn more about our work with Ingka, read more here.
Ingka Group consists of three business areas. The first is IKEA Retail, the core business, consisting of 374 IKEA stores and touchpoints across 30 markets, which receive 838 million visitors, plus over 2.3 billion visits to IKEA.com. The second is Ingka Centres, which creates and manages 44 Ingka Centres and meeting places across Europe, Russia and China. And the third is Ingka Investments, responsible both for investments in the core business and in areas that add value for our customers.
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