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A greener life at home

Read on to find out how IKEA is working with WWF and families to make a sustainable life at home that little bit easier

”We’re working with nine families to uncover the everyday challenges of being eco-conscious at home”

”Hello, I’m Ann-Sofie Gunnarsson, project manager of ‘Sustainable Life at Home’, a new IKEA scheme in partnership with WWF designed to inspire people to live a greener life at home. We’ve picked nine families – we call them our ‘ecorators’ – in Kalmar, Sweden, and worked with them to uncover the everyday challenges of trying to live in an environmentally friendly way.”


”Through a series of home visits and in-store seminars we hope to give them the tools to live more sustainably. We hope our ecorators will become our green ambassadors to inspire others to live more sustainably, and spark ideas for future product development.”

”It’s a learning curve – I’ve already taken some eco tips home”

”My name is Hanna Ryden and I work as an in-store co-ordinator at the Kalmar store. It’s so exciting that we got to pilot the project at our store. It’s been a learning curve for me because, when it comes to being sustainable at home, I’m just an amateur like everyone else! I’ve already taken some tips I’ve learned home – now I’m composting and thinking about saving water all the time.”

”Choosing the families was really hard – we wanted to work with a range of households, all of whom had reached different levels in their eco efforts. We interviewed about 300 people to find out how they lived, and how they wanted to live. Among the nine families we chose is Emil and his sons Joey and Jimmy (left). Emil is a single working dad, who really wants to live more sustainably and pass the message to his sons, but needed practical solutions to fit his life.”

”I make a real effort with my sons to be environmentally aware”

”I’m a single parent living in a 80m2 apartment with my sons Joey and Jimmy. I think it’s so important to educate young people to be environmentally aware, so I make a real effort with my sons. But I do struggle with sorting my recycling. I am so busy that I find it hard to be organised, and everything ends up stuffed under the sink, so I’m looking forward to getting some good advice from IKEA. They’ve already suggested I use a cart to take all the recycling to the bins outside – which saves lots of time!”

”We’re all vegetarian – which means we have a smaller carbon footprint than meat-eaters. And we go a step further by buying local produce – and even growing our own. It’s great for the kids to plant tomatoes, watch them grow and taste the results of their work!”







”There are smart ways to live sustainably at home, but not enough to make it simple. We hope this project will identify better solutions to everyday choices.”
Mariann Eriksson, Director of Marketing, WWF