Ask IKEA spokesperson Mona Liss a question about the $26.6 billion furniture retailer’s sustainability efforts, and the response takes a moment. It’s not because Liss doesn’t know her company inside and out, it’s because IKEA has been doing so much for so long to promote sustainability, there is an encyclopedia worth of information on the particular details of the topic.“We’ve had many of these programs in place all the way back to the 1990s,” Liss said. “And even before these specific programs, it’s something we’ve been conscious of as a company for a long time. It’s not something we just decided to implement in the last few years.”
It was in 1990 that IKEA decided to transform its conscious efforts into a sustainability action plan. Adopted in 1992, the Environmental Action Plan included 10 key initiatives:
1. Replace polyvinylchloride (PVC) in wallpapers, home textiles, shower curtains, lampshades, and furniture
2. Minimize the use of formaldehyde in its products, including textiles
3. Eliminate acid-curing lacquers
4. Produce a model of chair (OGLA) made from 100% pre-consumer plastic waste
5. Introduce a series of air-inflatable furniture products into the product line to reduce the use of raw materials and transportation weight and volume
6. Reduce the use of chromium for metal surface treatment
7. Limit the use of substances such as cadmium, lead, PCB, PCP, and AZO pigments
8. Use wood from responsibly managed forests that replant and maintain biological diversity
9. Use only recyclable materials for flat packaging and "pure" (non-mixed) materials for packaging to assist in recycling
10. Introduce rental bicycles with trailers for customers in Denmark
After working on these initiatives for nearly 16 years, IKEA has made substantial progress and become a place where consumers can confidently buy products sourced, manufactured, packaged, shipped, and sold in an environmentally friendly way. When it comes to a green supply chain, there’s no better example than IKEA.
IWAY or the highway
For furniture makers, wood is everything. But in a world where deforestation has become a hot-button topic, it can also be a source of frustration. Where did the wood come from? Are forests in that region responsibly managed? If so, how can that be proved?
“It’s difficult to do, but it’s also critical,” Liss said. “Our long-term goal is to source all of the wood used in our products from forests certified as responsibly managed.”
To guide that effort, IKEA created the IWAY code of conduct—minimum requirements suppliers must meet in order to do business with the company. According to IWAY’s environmental and forestry standards, suppliers must agree to: work to reduce waste and emissions to air, ground and water; handle chemicals in a safe way; dispose of hazardous materials in a safe manner; contribute to the recycling and reuse of products; use wood from known areas and, if possible, certified as responsibly managed.
To help spread the word and aid suppliers in meeting IWAY standards, IKEA created a network of Trading Service Offices. The offices train, support, and monitor suppliers to ensure compliance.
“We also have our own forest specialists,” Liss said. “These staff members spread knowledge about forest management and help us trace wood back to its origins to verify our IKEA wood requirements are met throughout the entire supply chain.”
Beyond the training and monitoring, IKEA also conducts regular surveys of its suppliers and audits them on a regular basis. While its goals are lofty and standards strict, IKEA understands most suppliers won’t meet all of IWAY’s rules without a little help. That’s why the company created a four-level staircase model of its requirements that suppliers can work on over time.
Liss said the company’s goal is to have 100% of its suppliers at the minimum Level 1 requirements by 2009 and 30% at the highest requirements of Level 4 shortly after.
Help from my friends
Going it alone is never easy, and in working with wood suppliers around the world to promote sustainable forestry, IKEA has had more than a little help from its friends.
Through partnerships with organizations including the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) and the Rainforest Alliance, the company has armed itself to better tackle problems like illegal logging and lack of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification. Projects are currently underway in Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Russia, China, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Latvia, and Lithuania, and to date, more than 5,000 individuals have been trained in topics related to sustainable forest management and certification. In China alone, more than 1.8 million acres of forest have become FSC certified under IKEA’s program.
“One of the most encouraging stats we’ve seen is in the number of wood supply chain audits we conducted last year,” Liss said. “That number decreased from 90 audits to 50 audits. It’s a good thing because it means more suppliers are meeting our documentation requirements and proving their wood comes from the right places.”
Beyond the trees
IKEA’s aggressive effort to use sustainable, responsible materials in its products is just the first step in a long line of green initiatives.
From the initial design stage through the product’s life cycle, IKEA designers, product developers, and technicians consider all safety, quality, and environmental aspects. As a result, all of the company’s home furnishing products are comprised of 71% renewable material and include as much recyclable material as possible.
When these environmentally friendly products are produced, IKEA works with its manufacturers to ensure safety, efficiency, and sustainability are top goals. Those products are then shipped using IKEA’s well-known flat pack strategy. The “assembly required” products are shipped in smaller and fewer containers, allowing the company to get more boxes in vehicles, thus reducing trips, energy use, and emissions. IKEA takes it a step further by making sure optimal loading techniques are used, vehicles run on cleaner fuels, and more fuel-efficient driving practices are followed. To top it all off, only recyclable materials are used for flat packaging.
The result of IKEA’s supply chain initiatives is end products consumers can confidently label as “green.” It’s impressive when you consider supply chain is just one piece of the company’s comprehensive environmental strategy, just ask Mona Liss.
“We do so much, it’s hard to keep track of it all,” she said with a laugh. “But it’s well worth the effort, and it allows us to deliver the brand message that we truly are a green company.”
IKEA’s Staircase Model Requirements for Wood Suppliers: Level 1 – Start-up Conditions
The first step up in IKEA’s model includes a number of minimum requirements.
4Wood is the standard developed for suppliers by IKEA in 2005 to ease the transition from Level 2 to Level 4. The 4Wood standard emphasizes the use of wood-tracking procedures and other routines to better control wood from procurement through production. Level 4 – Forests certified or responsibly managed |
