IKEA: Towards a circular business
In this inspiring session, IKEA leaders Christina Niemelä Ström and Alice Hong Gu share a powerful intergenerational story of courage, sustainability, and circularity. From the early days of IWAY - IKEA’s pioneering sustainability standard - to transforming the cotton industry and embracing circular design, they illustrate how bold questions and everyday actions can reshape systems.
Through personal reflections and practical examples, the talk emphasizes that real change begins with mindset, collaboration, and the courage to lead in the unknown. Attendees are invited to become the next generation of changemakers - turning good intentions into lasting impact and making leadership the most renewable resource of all.
Speakers
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Alice Hong GuAlice Hong Gu
Alice is Assistant to Supply chain operations manager, Inter IKEA Supply. Alice Hong Gu is committed to advancing sustainable and circular ways of working across the IKEA business. She has been engaged in strategic initiatives that connect purchasing, supply, and business operations with sustainability and circular economy principles, including the Recovery Hub initiative at IKEA. Since joining IKEA in 2019, Alice has held roles across IKEA Food, home furnishing, purchasing, and supply chain operations. This has given her a dynamic value chain experience covering financial and business forecasting, raw material sourcing strategies, and goods flow operations. She has also explored circularity hands-on through initiatives supporting product repair, reuse, and regenerative business models, contributing to IKEA’s ambition to become a circular and climate-positive business. Alice has a strong interest in sustainability, supply chain innovation, and collaborative ways of working. She is currently based in Switzerland.
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Christina Niemelä StrömHead of Sustainability for Supply, Inter IKEA GroupChristina Niemelä Ström
Counsellor
Head of Sustainability for Supply, Inter IKEA Group
IKEAChristina Niemelä Ström is committed to bring values-based decision making and comprehensive thinking on sustainability into the everyday business. She is leading the global sustainability agenda for Supply at IKEA, integrating the strategic sustainability ambitions and commitments into the business operations and decision-making across purchasing, transport, wholesale, manufacturing functions and supply chain. Christina also leads the Strategic Sustainability topics at Inter IKEA related to climate, nature and people, as well as stakeholder engagement, partnerships, impact and assessments, reporting and co-worker development. Christina started her career in IKEA with the Trading Service office Malaysia in 2000. Before stepping into her current role in August 2020, Christina had held several senior leadership assignments in supply chain, product development and IKEA Franchisor, developing both the IKEA business and its people across the value chain. Originally from Gothenburg, Sweden, Christina has a Master of Economics Degree from the University of Stockholm. She is currently based in Switzerland.