Sustainability: Lessons from Ørsted’s transformation from fossil fuels to renewables

Sam Peña-Taylor

Danish energy giant Ørsted, formerly DONG Energy, transformed itself from a builder and operator of coal-fired power stations to a renewable energy business, using its weight to stimulate a young market and adapting its brand to its new mission.

Employees, and especially their morale, can be forgotten in the cut and thrust of executive-level strategy decisions, but how they feel about the activity they spend most of their waking hours performing really matters to a company’s long-term success. 

Danish energy giant Ørsted pulled off a transformation that was strategically significant for several reasons, not least that a leader in coal-powered stations and natural gas was pivoting its core business. 

This would lead to it changing its name, turning its back on the fossil-fuel industry that had been so good to it, and setting itself ambitious decarbonisation targets way ahead...

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