Ulrike Sapiro · Brussels

Un//Common

Advisory, governance and leadership for the transition to an economy that fits within planetary boundaries.

25 years leading sustainability, nature and stakeholder strategy in fast-moving consumer goods, chemicals and utilities. Board member, adviser and, currently, Managing Director of the Jacques Delors Friends of Europe Foundation and Friends of Europe think tanks.

Get in touch About me

Common goals. Uncommon ways.

The name

Common is the purpose.

Water, soil, climate, biodiversity, trust, prosperity: the things that matter most are the things we hold in common and can only secure together. I have spent my career inside global companies working on exactly these shared goods, with the conviction that business does best when it treats the Commons as an asset to be stewarded rather than a resource to be used up.

Uncommon is the method.

The problems are collective, but the answers rarely come from doing the usual thing a little better. They come from asking a different question, crossing a boundary that others respect too politely, connecting people who do not normally sit in the same room, and being willing to move before the consensus is comfortable.

The double slash marks the place where the two meet. It is a pause and a pivot: committed to the common good, unconventional about how to get there.

That is how a water stewardship programme becomes a business strategy, how a reporting obligation becomes a governance advantage, and how a sustainability target survives contact with a board.

How I work

Four places where sustainability usually fails.

Whatever the topic, most sustainability challenges fail at the same four points: they are not anchored in strategy, they are not owned by governance, they are caught out by regulation and politics they did not see coming, and they cannot be explained credibly to the people who need to believe them. These are the four things I do.

Strategy

Turning ambition into a plan the business can execute and defend: materiality and priorities, target-setting, the link to commercial value and risk, and the narrative that carries it internally and externally. I have built corporate sustainability strategies in a DAX 40 group and across a global beverage system with multiple bottling partners. I know the difference between a strategy that reads well and one that changes decisions, and how to organise accountabilities to turn targets into actions.

Governance

Designing how sustainability is actually decided, owned and overseen: board and committee structures, management accountability, ways of working across functions, and the relationship with owners, whether a listed shareholder base, a private equity investor or a founding family. I have managed a management board sustainability committee, worked with supervisory boards and family shareholder committees, and sit on boards myself. IMD-certified in board governance.

Policy and regulation

Reading the political and regulatory environment early enough to shape it, and building it into strategy rather than reacting to it. I have worked with international and EU institutions for 25 years, on water, climate, packaging, agriculture, corporate reporting and due diligence, and have led policy engagement through industry associations, coalitions and think tanks. I know how legislation is made in Brussels, how to engage in it constructively, and how to translate it for a board.

Disclosure and narrative

Making the numbers hold and the story land. ESG data, reporting and assurance are critical for credibility and data-based decision making. I led a first CSRD disclosure and integrated the wider EU framework (CSDDD, EUDR, Green Claims, sustainable finance), improved ESG ratings (CDP, EcoVadis) and ensured the integrity of claims around carbon, nature and supply chains. The other half of the job is building a credible narrative around the numbers: one that a board will own, employees will recognise, investors and rating agencies will trust, and regulators, NGOs and the media will not be able to pick apart.

What I know

Three fields, one home ground.

Climate

Setting direction on Net Zero strategy and targets, operational efficiency and renewable energy, Scope 3 and supply-chain decarbonisation, and sustainable finance frameworks. I have worked across functions, from scientists to IT, to organise the technical and functional set-up for GHG and LCA accounting, and know the practical realities of delivering emission reductions inside an operating business: Scope 1–3 down 29% over four years at Henkel.

Water and nature home ground

Global water stewardship and water security strategy, watershed and landscape investment, sustainable agriculture and climate resilience across global commodities such as sugar, fruit, dairy, coffee and palm. I know the value of nature-based solutions, and what it takes to make them credible and bankable. I have directed up to US$40m a year of investment into water and community projects, set corporate nature and water targets, and worked for two decades with leading conservation organisations and global initiatives in water and agriculture.

Circularity

Packaging, recycling and circular business models, from blueprinting a global sustainable packaging strategy to leading EU policy engagement on the circular economy through industry associations. Extended Producer Responsibility is a case in point: I have helped companies see EPR not as a cost to be minimised but as a strategic lever, and use it to build collection, recycling and packaging value chains that secure material supply and competitive advantage.

Across all three: a network that spans corporates, NGOs, multilateral institutions, investors and policymakers in Brussels and beyond.

Ways of working

From a board seat to a function built from scratch.

Working with families and business owners, CEOs, boards, investors and sustainability leaders.

Board roles: Non-executive and supervisory board mandates, and advisory boards, for companies and organisations where nature, climate and sustainability are material to strategy.
Advisory: Strategy, governance, policy and disclosure, from a focused review to a multi-month engagement.
Interim and executive leadership: Leading organisations and functions through build-up, transformation or transition.
Speaking and facilitation: Boards, leadership teams and employees, investor and stakeholder fora.

Ulrike Sapiro · Founder

About me

Built inside global companies. Now working for the Commons from the outside.

I am the founder of Un//Common and currently the Managing Director of the Jacques Delors Friends of Europe Foundation and Friends of Europe in Brussels, both independent EU policy think tanks with a commitment to contribute to a stronger, sustainable and prosperous Europe.

Until December 2025 I was Chief Sustainability Officer of Henkel AG, a German, family-controlled and internationally operating DAX 40 company, where I built the corporate sustainability function and strategy, set the group's first Net Zero, nature and water targets and delivered the first CSRD report. Before that I spent thirteen years at The Coca-Cola Company, a global FMCG multinational, in several roles leading on sustainable packaging, water and sustainable agriculture, latterly as Senior Director for Global Water Stewardship and Sustainable Agriculture. I began my career at RWE Thames Water.

I am a Trustee of Water & Sanitation for Urban Populations, have served on the Supervisory Board of Wetlands International and as President of the SAI Platform, and hold a Postgraduate Certificate in Sustainability Leadership from the University of Cambridge and IMD's Mastering Board Governance certificate. German, based in Brussels, fluent in English, German and French. Outdoors whenever possible; I manage my own forest.