Sustainable Leadership

10Sustainable Startups

If you want something you've never had, you must be willing to do something you've never done.

—Thomas Jefferson

EACH SITTING ALONE at the top of a mountain, on an uninhabited island off the north coast of Sweden, members of H2 Green Steel's leadership team are encouraged to look out to sea, contemplate nature, and take stock of their lives. As part of the exercise—the company's version of a corporate off-site—they face north, east, south, and west by turns, taking in the view from all points of the compass. They then look inward to examine different aspects of their professional and personal selves as the Baltic wind howls furiously around them.

The 20 executives were recent recruits to a startup that aims to produce the world's first fossil-free steel, revolutionizing an industry. They arrived at the small island by boat, took an hour to walk around its circumference, then dispersed to find a spot where they could see no other human being or signs of development. They set up tents and then hunted for firewood, edible roots, berries, and whatever other items of survival they could rustle up from the nearby brush. And that was entirely the point, Henrik Henriksson, CEO of this highly disruptive startup whom you met in Chapter 5, explained months after his company made international headlines with its announcement that it would begin production of the first fossil-fuel-free steel by 2024.

“I know it sounds like mumbo-jumbo, but in Sweden we have a strong ...