Published 27 November 2019 • Inter IKEA newsroom

COP25: How IKEA is making food compatible with the Paris Agreement

At IKEA, we want to inspire our customers to choose a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle, by offering food that has a positive impact on both people and the planet at an affordable price. At COP25, Lena Pripp-Kovac, Chief Sustainability Officer at Inter IKEA Group, will talk about scaling up the sustainable food businesses.

IKEA is committed to doing our part to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees by converting our business and become climate positive by 2030. Increasing the plant-based choices in the IKEA food offer and making it affordable and delicious is an important part of the IKEA climate strategy.

There is an increasing demand from our customers to have access to more sustainable protein sources as an alternative to meat and seafood. To meet that demand, IKEA introduced the veggie hot dog in 2018. The veggie hot dog has a lower carbon footprint than the classic hot dog served in our bistros.

The veggie hot dog was in 2019, followed by a strawberry plant-based soft ice, which was yet another step contributing to the IKEA goal to include more plant-based ingredients in the range.

“We have the ambition to enable more of the many people to make delicious and sustainable food choices at affordable prices. By creating delicious plant based alternatives of our most iconic products we hope to inspire the many people to help us to create the future IKEA food icons that are better for both people and the planet,” says Michael La Cour, Managing Director for IKEA Food Services AB.

Earlier this year, IKEA also announced that we are working on a new product, the Plant ball, that looks and tastes like meat but is made from plant-based alternative proteins. IKEA has the ambition to serve the new Plant ball in all of its restaurants globally during FY21.

"There is a need to transform the way we produce and consume food. More sustainable practices in the food industry and more sustainable dietary habits are essential to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement and to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees," says Lena Pripp-Kovac.

IKEA is attending COP25 to share how we are working to become climate positive and discuss how we and other businesses can speed up the global climate movement. During the COP25 panel discussion "Making Food Compatible with the Paris Agreement", Lena Pripp-Kovac will discuss climate change and sustainable diets, and share how IKEA is scaling up the sustainable food businesses.

COP25 will be held in Madrid, 2–13 December.

COP25 event: "Making Food Compatible with the Paris Agreement."

A coalition of experts led by the EAT Foundation with the support of UN Climate Change will launch a larger, broader multi-sectoral forum at COP25. Their main goal is to emphasise the need to focus the world's attention on the role that sustainable gastronomy can play in achieving the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Lena Pripp-Kovac, Chief Sustainability Officer at Inter IKEA Group, will be one of the speakers at the event

When: 11 December 2019, 15:00 – 16:30 pm (CET, local time)

Where: Room 6