Our nature agenda
As a global brand with diverse supply chains, operations, and locations, we both impact and depend on nature in many ways. By prioritising nature, we safeguard our business, support communities, and build resilience across the IKEA value chain, for years to come.
We aim to reduce our negative impacts and help restore nature by improving biodiversity, protecting ecosystems and regenerating resources, while reducing pollution and freshwater withdrawal. This includes responsible sourcing of materials such as wood, agricultural materials and food ingredients, inorganics and recycled materials, and securing that all chemicals used in or for making our products should be safe for people and the planet.
Biodiversity
We are focused on actions to support reducing our negative impacts and contributing to the protection, improvement and enhancement of biodiversity connected to our value chain and beyond.
Water
We are working to improve water security throughout the IKEA value chain, protecting nature and supporting communities connected to the basins where we operate while inspiring widespread water action in society.
Wood
Wood is the most used material within the IKEA home furnishing business and a key focus area for our material agenda. In FY24, 97% of all wood and paper we used came from sources such as FSC-certified or recycled wood. Through our forestry agenda, we aim to utilise this valuable resource as efficiently as possible. and ensure that the forests we source from or own are managed responsibly. IKEA is also committed to using its size, scale and reach to help halt deforestation and to make responsible forest management and wood sourcing the norm across the world.
Agriculture
Globally, resource-intensive agricultural systems have contributed to deforestation, water scarcity, biodiversity loss, soil depletion and high levels of greenhouse gas emissions. A significant part of the environmental and social impact in our value chain is upstream of our own and our suppliers’ operations. This is why we want to understand the full CO₂ footprint of IKEA agriculture sources, paying special attention to soil health and its ability to protect biodiversity and to become a carbon sink using regenerative practices.
Agricultural raw materials are found throughout the IKEA offer in food ingredients and as fibres or other renewable materials in products. Looking ahead, and by grouping the agricultural commodities together, we aim to further accelerate the movement towards regenerative agriculture practices through a holistic landscape approach.
Cotton
Since 2015, the IKEA business has only sourced virgin cotton from sources that use less fertilisers, less chemicals and less water and recycled cotton. Cotton teams working across the globe are responsible for ensuring that all cotton used in IKEA products meets the demands of compliance in our supply chain.
Food ingredients
Our aim is to contribute toward creating food systems that deliver progress for people, nature and climate, while aligning with our focus on helping people live a healthy and more sustainable life at home. We’ll do this through taking actions to support nutrition, proteins, less food waste, responsible sourcing, and packaging, as well as more responsible agriculture practices, production and supply.
Animal welfare
We are working to improve animal welfare through the environments they are reared in, the way they are handled, and standards for on-farm practices that prioritise good physical health, good mental health, and the expression of natural behaviour.
Inorganics
Inorganic raw materials are minerals used in the production of metals, glass, ceramic, chemicals and electronic components. These materials are used directly in a wide range of products like pots, pans, appliances, lighting, taps, and indirectly as components. Inorganic raw materials involve extractive industries, and their use will be significantly reduced, replaced and eliminated where possible.
We know some raw materials don’t currently have a renewable substitute, and the technology to recycle some raw materials doesn’t exist yet. Until we have solutions for these materials, we’ll continue to use responsibly sourced virgin inorganics, replace them with new technologies when possible and decrease the proportions in IKEA products.
Transparency in the inorganics supply chain
We are exploring how to create transparency in the complex inorganics supply chains. Together with suppliers and sub-suppliers, and other actors in the sector, the IKEA business is looking into how traceability of these raw materials, up to the source of origin, could be possible to achieve in a realistic and trustworthy way. These collaborations have also looked at how to identify and mitigate risks along the supply chain.
Recycled materials
In a world of limited resources, we want to move towards a circular system where materials never become waste, and products and materials are kept in circulation. By FY30, we will increase the share of recycled and renewable content in IKEA products to at least 90%. By increasing our demand for recycled materials and by sourcing waste material responsibly, we aim to further prevent waste generation.
Polyester
As of FY24, we have reached 92% recycled content across all polyester based materials (textiles and filling fibres).