50 former trainees from the four companies came together to take on three different challenges in smaller groups and together come up with ideas on how these can be solved.
"This day is about creating together, exchanging knowledge and generating ideas. We know that it is not possible to solve the challenges of the future within sustainability on our own or within just one industry. We have to work together," said Fanny Lindberg from Vattenfall who introduced the day as moderator together with SEB's Christian Bergqvist.
During the morning, both Vattenfall's CEO Magnus Hall and SEB's CEO Johan Torgeby were there to introduce the companies and tell a little about themselves and their driving forces. Johan shared his belief about the importance of having a passion and a purpose to accelerate and succeed in sustainability. He also mentioned Investor and the Wallenberg family's important role for society within sustainability, where 80 per cent of the profits go to research. Magnus Hall gave insight into Vattenfall's operations where their goal is to become fossil-free within one generation.
Challenges in the energy industry
After the introduction, the participants were divided into mixed groups from the different companies and had to choose between three challenges to work with according to a sprint design method. One of the challenges was about how collaboration between different industries could enable renewable energy to become economically competitive compared to fossil fuel. The second challenge was to identify what is currently lacking in the energy value chain and what methods and technology that can be used to make it more successful. The third challenge was about the sharing economy trend and how it could be applied in the energy industry.
During the afternoon, the groups presented their solutions to a jury consisting of people from Siemens, SEB and Vattenfall. The ideas presented covered everything from how consumers could easily produce their own energy to the winning idea that was based on an app, called Mar-Co aimed at small and medium-sized companies where companies can exchange services, products and collaborate in different ways. Examples of such services were the recycling of products and common transport solutions
A long-term cooperation
The network with the four companies has sprung from an HR forum where the idea of better utilizing all knowledge cross-functional between the companies was born. The collaboration will continue, and in this autumn, Siemens and Husqvarna will host the event