Wood is the material most commonly associated with IKEA furniture, and for good reasons. It’s renewable, recyclable, durable, ages beautifully and it is an important part of our Scandinavian design heritage.
At IKEA we believe that sourced in responsible way, wood is a key change driver for climate mitigation. In 2012, we set a goal that by 2020 our wood would be from more sustainable sources. We are happy to announce that we have reached this goal and today, more than 98% of the wood used for IKEA products is either FSC-certified or recycled.
When starting to work with KUNGSFORS, we turned to chef and cookbook writer Maximilian Lundin for inspiration.
"There are a lot of practical things to be learned from a restaurant kitchen,” says Maximilian. “Like having utensils and ingredients easily accessible so that you have a good flow when cooking, and have plenty of space on the kitchen worktop."
With the help of Maximilian, our product development team created shelves, grids and rails that you either mount directly to the wall or on special suspension rails where you easily complete and move things around without having to drill new holes in the wall.
The rails have room for hooks meant for all the utensils, and also room for the special shelf where you can place a tablet with the dinner recipe at eye's level.
The series is made up of many different products and the project required both time and patience from all involved. The team engineer David Zeberg looks back on the work.
"One of the challenges was to make the wall brackets of the rails hidden. But I love projects where we do something pioneering and have to test boundaries before finding the solution."
For the chef Maximillian, who is passionate about good food, it was a whole new experience to be involved in influencing people's kitchens ─ the environment where food is cooked.
"The positive thing was that everyone in the team was so ambitious about ensuring that KUNGSFORS would help to simplify cooking", says Maximillian.
Forests contribute to maintaining balance in the atmosphere, purify the air that we breathe and are part of the water cycle. They nourish wildlife biodiversity and provide homes for indigenous communities who depend on forests for their livelihoods. 90% of plant and animal species living on the planet need forests to survive. They provide sources of food, fuel, timber and many other ecosystem services that we rely upon.
Sourcing approximately 19 million m3 of roundwood per year from some 50 countries, IKEA has a significant impact on the world’s forests and the timber industry and a huge responsibility to positively influence how wood is sourced. Responsible wood sourcing and forest management ensure that the needs of people dependent on forests are met, that businesses can work sustainably, that forest ecosystems are protected and biodiversity is enhanced.
At IKEA, we work with strict industry standards to promote responsible forestry. We don’t allow any wood in our supply chain from forest areas that are illegal or contain high conservation values or from forest areas with social conflict.
Before starting to work with IKEA, suppliers must demonstrate that they meet IKEA critical requirements on wood sourcing. IKEA requires all suppliers to source wood from more sustainable sources (FSC-certified or recycled wood). All suppliers are audited regularly and non-compliant suppliers are required to implement immediate corrective actions.
By working together with our suppliers, we are proud to announce that we have reached our more sustainable sources goal, which we set out to achieve by 2020. Today more than 98% of the wood used for IKEA products is either FSC-certified or recycled.
As pressure on the world’s forests and the surrounding eco-systems increases due to unsustainable agriculture, the expansion of infrastructure and illegal logging, it is time to take an even more holistic approach to protect and support these important resources for generations to come.
The IKEA Forest Positive Agenda for 2030 set out to improve forest management, enhance biodiversity, mitigate climate change and support the rights and needs of people who depend on forests across the whole supply chain and drive innovation to use wood in even smarter ways. The agenda focuses on three key areas:
• Making responsible forest management the norm across the world.
• Halting deforestation and reforesting degraded landscapes.
• Driving innovation to use wood in smarter ways by designing all products from the very beginning to be reused, refurbished, remanufactured, and eventually recycled.
For many years, IKEA has partnered with businesses, governments, social groups and non-governmental organisations to fight forest degradation and deforestation and increase the volume and availability of wood from responsibly managed forests both for our own supply chain and beyond.
We are on a journey to improve global forest management and make responsible wood sourcing the industry standard, contributing to building resilient forest landscapes and improve biodiversity.
