Published 02 October 2017 • Inter IKEA newsroom
IKEA ranked number 1 for the second year in Sustainable Cotton Report
For the second year IKEA has received the highest score in the ranking for sustainability performance in the latest Sustainable Cotton Report. Since 2015, all cotton in IKEA products comes from more sustainable sources.
The report, created by Pesticide Action Network (UK), Solidaridad and WWF, assesses consumer-facing companies who have significant cotton use and therefore play a prominent role in influencing sustainable cotton practices. Of the 75 companies assessed, IKEA is leading for change in the cotton industry.
The report looks upon the company’s improvement on policy, uptake (actual use in products) and traceability. IKEA continues to improve cotton cultivation conditions. The company has extended its human rights compliance procedures and water policy to include the cotton cultivation stage.
“We have been working for almost a decade to make global cotton production better for the people who produce it and the environment it grows in. This ranking shows that we are well on our way, even if we all have to do more to transform the cotton and textile industry," says Lena Pripp-Kovac, Sustainability Manager at IKEA Range and Supply.
Since 2015, all of the cotton used in IKEA products comes from more sustainable sources. More sustainable cotton is grown using less water, chemical fertilisers and pesticides, while increasing profit margins for farmers and promoting biodiversity. We verify that our promise is being kept, by regularly checking that the cotton can be traced back to the farmers that grow it.
IKEA is also a founding member of the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), a multi-stakeholder organisation that sets social and environmental criteria for more sustainable cotton. BCI is set up to make large scale change with the aim to transform all conventional cotton production to more sustainable cotton. Thereafter continually improve the cotton industry to become even better. IKEA is one of the world's largest users of Better Cotton.
Grown in approximately 80 countries, over 100 million households are dependent on engaging directly in cotton cultivation for income. Better Cotton (as defined by BCI), is cotton from farmers working towards the BCI standard and sustainably grown cotton from USA.