Circular Futures may be the most successful of all the Greenhouse programs to date, according to Greenhouse program manager, Nina Tuomikangas: “It is the first time that four different business areas have backed the program. And all six ideas that reached the Hackathon and Accelerator went on to the next phase! It's been great to work with these teams, who have both the drive and expertise, and with dragons who delivered valuable insights along the way.”
Why do you think this program has been so successful?
“Maybe because the subject hit the right spot? It engages!”, says Nina.
Nina Tuomikangas, Lantmännen Group R&D
One of this year's dragons is Anne Mette Løj, Global Marketing Director at Lantmännen Unibake. Upon comparing her role as Dragon for Greenhouse today with previous years, she believes that this year's ideas have greater business relevance.
“I think we have matured in the way we work with the projects. We are sharper and more professional in our approach to identifying and evaluating real business opportunities. I’m so impressed with how elaborate this year's proposals were.”
Anne Mette Løj, Lantmännen Unibake Marketing
Lantmännen's Director Public and Regulatory Affairs, Alarik Sandrup also participated as a dragon. He applauds the program theme and the desire to extract added value from residual products. Although the ambition isn’t new for Lantmännen, he believes that it is always possible to improve:
“There are always ways to keep up with changes and improve. If you stand still, you fall behind! Thanks to our structure and our long-term perspective, Lantmännen also has unique opportunities. We can think strategically decades ahead, not just about the next quarterly report, and we have control over the entire value chain.”
For Lantmännen to be able to make sustainable proposals and stay at the forefront, he says, the work must be concrete. “It's not possible to analyze a proposal until it's been molded on an operational level. Now we've done just that – we've tackled important questions and taken serious steps in our building of knowledge.”
Alarik is part of a team whose idea relates to the impact of agriculture on the climate – an issue that is very timely.
“How we manage the sustainability of agriculture is one of the top five issues for the industry. The EU has started a process to develop targets for agriculture up to 2040. It's not a shot in the dark, but the beginning of a big process. And when Lantmännen is confronted with discussions in our advocacy work, it's not successful to say no. Instead, we must show alternatives. That's how we usually work.”
Alarik Sandrup, Lantmännen Group Public and Regulatory Affairs
When Anne Mette Løj sums up the work in the Greenhouse, she sees great value in the commitment as such: “I think the Circular Futures theme is a great demonstration of our commitment to our sustainability journey. The fact that we show that we need to act and that we are committed is crucial.”
The topic is high on Lantmännen's agenda, and the company has now found ways to work on it together in several business areas.
“The theme of Circular Futures has opened our eyes to what is happening outside the Lantmännen world. The Greenhouse has exposed us to things we wouldn't have seen otherwise. That alone makes the program very valuable,” says Anne Mette.
As in previous years, the Greenhouse has been a valuable arena for good ideas from employees. Mikael Åstrand, Director of R&D and Innovation at Lantmännen R&D, has seen how the program has benefited from input from colleagues. Not least thanks to the fact that the participants in the teams are brought together across business boundaries and with different prior knowledge. He explains:
“One part is about coming up with ideas about how to be more circular – ideas that we take forward. And the other part is that it’s more fun to work in a place that is interested in my ideas and what I think!”
Mikael Åstrand, Lantmännen Group R&D
Anne Mette believes that the Greenhouse working methods are necessary:
“The Greenhouse takes us out of our day-to-day work and gives us the opportunity to focus our energy and resources in a unique way. If it were easy, we would already be working like this. It lifts us up and connects different functions.”
However, there is in fact a desire to spread the working method. Nina Tuomikangas and Mikael Åstrand reveal how it will be introduced outside of the Greenhouse:
“We will extend the Greenhouse way of working both within Lantmännen and in the way we work with partners. We will work in smaller groups and with smaller challenges. This is part of making our business more innovative.”
One of R&D's tasks is to make Lantmännen even more innovative. An integral step in this process will be to distribute tools from the Greenhouse to those who request them.
“It will be a service for our colleagues to book and we will also have a block in Lantmännen's leadership program,” says Mikael. “We cannot decide that our colleagues should use the working method – there must be an interest. And I believe that if this step helps everyone become more innovative, the power released will soon overshadow the work we do in the Greenhouse.”
In the Circular Futures program we made many new Greenhouse records – we got 170 ideas from 12 countries and altogether over 250 people joined in the different activities throughout the year: Launch events, digital and physical Innovation Days, Demo Days for start-ups in the autumn and Hackathon and Accelerator for the selected ideas now in the spring. It will be exciting to follow how the ideas will grow in the future and what will turn out of them!
Thank you all for the amazing Circular Futures journey together – special thank you for the great Hackathon and Accelerator teams!
Joint Äio team: Anni Talts (Unibake), Evelyn Lumi (Äio), Solja Pietiäinen (Lantmännen Group R&D), Luisa Nora (Äio) and Maija Kauppi (Unibake). Aino Kiiskinen (Unibake) missing the picture.
Joint SEaB team Maria Nelving (Unibake), Sandra Sassow (SEaB), Carlo Rampini (Unibake) and Aino Kiiskinen (Unibake). Richard Stowey from Unibake missing from the picture.
Joint Volare team Sofia Siljama (Cerealia), Tuure Parviainen (Volare), Jarna Hyvönen (Volare), Tapio Lahti (Lantmännen Agro) and Kirsi Vesterinen (Cerealia). Kerstin Sigfridson (Lantmännen Group R&D) missing from the picture
Tebrito team: Göran Larsson (Agriculture), Anders Lindgren (Lantmännen Group R&D), Kerstin Sigfridsson (Lantmännen Group R&D) and Nils Österström (Tebrito). Jakob Söderström (Lantmännen Group R&D) was mentoring the team
“Upcycled Bread” team: Diane Burgess (Unibake), Rune Møller (Unibake), Sophia Wassén (Lantmännen Group R&D) and Carlo Rampini (Unibake) and Milena Siemiatkowska (Unibake)
“Project Black” team working with a solution for grain intake residuals in agriculture: Ola Rickardsson, Jakob Nygårds and Anders Lindgren.