Episode 5: Ep 5 - Conversation with Anne Larilahti (Previously VP Sustainability, Finnair)

More With Less Podcast with Venkata and Jaideep

Join us in this week’s episode where we speak with Anne Larilahti, who recently exited her role as Vice President of Sustainability with Finnair. Anne shares her insights from her recent leadership roles in sustainability in the aviation sector (Finnair), and in the telecom sector (Telia, Nokia). She talks about the social and environmental impacts, for example how transportation's social benefits include global trade for people learning and quite frankly, peace and living together but on the other hand is still based on fossil fuels while the telecom sector has bought digitalization and made distances insignificant by bringing people together instantly. Anne tells us that there is a historic opportunity regarding climate change and realizing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the financial aspect to make them feasible and she says " I think most large companies understand it and if they don't the market will make them understand." The conversation then goes towards biofuels, solar, electric, and other renewable opportunities for the aviation sector, the role of CEOs, and industry collaboration platforms. Anne also takes us into the world of social, and environmental KPIs and examples of direct metrics and proxies that are used in the industry. She sees positive change happening regarding sustainability and business, where companies are really starting to understand the value of sustainability not just as a license to operate, but also as a business driver. Guest Bio Anne Larilahti, previously Vice President of Sustainability with Finnair and held executive roles in Sustainability at Telia and Nokia. Anne is currently on the Advisory Board of Elite Alfred Berg, an investment company, and also serves as a board member Veikkaus, the Finnish state gambling monopoly. Key moments timestamps [01:13]- Anne’s personal and professional journey [02:30]- How Anne compares the aviation and telecom sectors, where she had her most recent leadership roles in sustainability [04:18]- Role of Covid and climate change on the aviation industry [06:49]- Affect on sustainability leadership in publicly listed companies while balancing financial returns [09:09]- Balancing short term vs long-term regarding moving from fossil fuels to renewables [12:14]- Collaboration for sustainable development between industries and the executives that lead them. [14:13]- Balancing financial pressures with sustainability and the role of KPIs [17:18]- Examples of the impact metrics used in companies from Anne’s career [18:25]- Examples of any particular sector leading the sustainability torch based on Anne’s experience [20:21]- Importance of working with not just companies that are sustainability leaders but also laggards [23:11]- The future of sustainability leadership and Anne’s own future path Check out the full episode transcription at: https://https://morewithlesspodcast.com/ Quotes “So I don't even see that there's a huge balance between being sustainable or being financially sound because, maybe there was, but they're coming very close. And I think most large companies understand it and if they don't the market will make them understand.” - Anne Larilahti About Us Venkata Gandikota is a frugal innovation and impact investing evangelist and Prof Jaideep Prabhu is a Professor of Marketing at Cambridge University’s Judge Business School and co-author of an award-winning book on frugal innovation. If you have questions or feedback on this episode or our series, reach out to us. Twitter: https://twitter.com/morewithlesspodLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/more-with-less-podcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/morewithlesspodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_hymDe_ez7RbRko0PLsFkwWebsite: https://morewithlesspodcast.com