Our view on chemicals
At IKEA, we want to create a better everyday life for the many people – and we believe a safer life is a better life. The right to feel safe at home is close to our heart. This is why we have strict chemical requirements to ensure that IKEA products are safe and healthy to use, and that they are produced with care for indoor and outdoor environments. Our work, when it comes to chemicals, is aimed at avoiding harmful effects throughout the lifecycle of every IKEA product.
Chemicals are used to manufacture products used in everyday life. From bringing colour to textiles and adding texture to materials to joining parts together, giving them a shape or creating a protective layer on products to help them last longer. In working with chemicals, we ask ourselves if the chemical is needed, if there are better alternatives, and if not, is it still worth including. Many IKEA chemical requirements go beyond legal demands, and we often phase out chemicals that are suspected of being harmful in advance of legislation.
Ensuring safety and compliance
At IKEA, we draw on over 80 years of experience of everyday life at home to make sure that our products are safe and healthy to use. Our decisions and requirements are based on facts and science. We test our products at our test centres in Älmhult, Sweden and Shanghai, China, as well as other independent accredited test labs around the world.
To guide us in our work with chemicals, we created the IKEA Chemical Strategy in 2016. The five key objectives of our Chemical Strategy that we abide by include:
- increasing information on product chemical content
- assess all IKEA products for chemical safety
- phase out substances/materials of concern
- ensure our suppliers share our values on chemical safety and compliance
- increase awareness among co-workers, consumers and stakeholders on chemical safety and compliance.
Requirements throughout the lifecycle
Our work on strict chemical requirements is embedded in how we work on all levels throughout our value chain. Our IKEA suppliers and service providers are crucial partners in this process. Not only must they follow our defined requirements when working with chemicals, they contribute with knowledge and expertise to ensure IKEA products comply with applicable laws and standards on the markets where IKEA operates. We perform risk assessments and testing programmes, often applying requirements which are tougher than those imposed by many authorities.
Chemicals in recycled materials
In the transition to a more circular business model, where IKEA is introducing more recycled materials, we pay high attention to chemical safety. We do our utmost to not contaminate post-consumer material flows with chemicals of concerns, which we believe is key to enabling a circular economy where IKEA products are designed and manufactured to be recycled.
Developing solutions to improve our products
For decades IKEA has banned and restricted the use of chemicals of concern throughout the IKEA value chain, always looking at research and innovations to help us take important steps. For example, IKEA banned and phased-out hexavalent chromium in chromating/anodizing in 2005 and in leather in 2015. We banned Bisphenol A (BPA)-containing plastics in children’s products in 2006 and in food-contact products in 2012. We also phased out PVC (polyvinyl chloride) from most products – today, PVC remains only in some electrical products, and work continues to find replacements.
IKEA has a long history of continuously lowering the formaldehyde emission levels from wood-based boards and we are progressing toward reaching formaldehyde emission levels from wood-based materials that are equal to, or lower than, levels emitted by natural wood. Our wood-based materials used in the production of IKEA products fulfil all relevant legal requirements in markets where IKEA operates. IKEA requirements also secure that the coatings and coverings do not contribute with formaldehyde. In addition to formaldehyde emission from raw materials, IKEA also has requirements for formaldehyde, other aldehydes and volatile organic compounds for complete furniture products.
IKEA has been working on phasing out PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) in our supply chain since 2009. In 2016 we completed to phase-out PFAS in textiles. PFAS is a vast group of substances that can have multiple functions and is sometimes contained in products with complex supply chains. IKEA recognizes that intensive work is required to identify remaining uses of PFAS in IKEA products and production processes. A phase-out from other applications will be complex and take time. This is especially the case where technically feasible alternatives are not yet available and alternatives need to be developed and performance of alternative solutions evaluated, as for example in electronic and electrical components. IKEA is committed to further phase-out PFAS while staying clear of regrettable substitutions.
Joining forces to make a bigger impact
IKEA strives to use materials, surface treatments and production techniques with careful consideration for possible effects for people and the environment. In the field of chemicals, we’re constantly searching for new and innovative approaches to strengthen our product range. We engage in conferences and discussions, sharing our strategies and challenges to enable collaboration with the aim of enhancing product safety for the many. We also encourage policymakers to phase out dangerous substances by using the chemical class approach and we support manufacturers to reduce the use of substances of concern. At IKEA, we constantly strive to make our products as safe as possible for you, your family, and the environment.