- 9,500+
products have been assessed for circularity.
- 21.5 million
More than 21.5 million assembly parts were offered to customers in FY22 to extend the life of our products.
There’s a growing awareness of the impact humanity has on the planet; it shapes the way people value the things they own, what they care about, and how they make buying decisions. No one wants to be wasteful, but people struggle with how to maintain, repair, and eventually pass on things they believe still have value. At the same time, many can’t afford what they need for everyday living.
We’ll continue to make products affordable and accessible by developing circular services and solutions for customers who want to care for the products they already own, those who can’t afford or don’t want to buy new products, and those who want to pass things on. We will never compromise on quality and safety.
Our strategic goals for 2030:
Designing circular products
To ensure all products can be reused, refurbished, remanufactured and eventually recycled, we have developed circular product design principles to guide us through this process. We will innovate and invest in our home furnishing offer and always lead with Democratic Design. It’s about doing things right from the beginning and designing products that enable a systemic shift towards a circular economy.
Explore circular product design
We are improving the circular capabilities of our products. In FY22, we continued to improve the circular capabilities of products. We’re extending the scope of this Key Performance Indicator (KPI) to increase the accuracy of measuring the circular capabilities of our total product range and in FY23 we’ll be able to report progress using the improved KPI. In FY21, using the previous KPI, we reported an increase in the circular capabilities of the lowest scoring products (to 36%) and maintained full circular capability (100%) for the highest scoring products.
Designed to move and grow with you
A key enabler to prolonging the life of products is built-in, easy-fix flexibility. One example is the wedge dowel, a click-technique that eases the assembly, disassembly and eventual reassembly of IKEA furniture so the customer can take it with them when they move. Another example is extendable beds that are designed to grow with your child for many years.
Circular design that’s adaptable
When we design for standardisation and adaptability, it ensures products can be reused and refurbished through scalable maintenance and repair services. Standardised parts also allow remanufacturing by reusing parts in other products. At IKEA, we are creating circular solutions for existing and new customers to acquire, care for and pass on products.
IKEA shares online product design tool to accelerate the circular movement
We are committed to designing all products with built-in circular capabilities by FY30. To inspire others to do the same, we are now sharing our insights through an online, easy-to-use interactive tool created for designers, companies, and anyone who wants to assess the furniture and home furnishing products they already have at home.
Using renewable or recycled materials
Materials are the biggest contributor to the IKEA climate footprint, where extraction and processing of raw material represents more than 50%. Our material agenda is speeding up as we find new sources and develop new materials. We’re currently working to implement an automated data collection tool that will increase the efficiency and accuracy of our reporting and are therefore not able to update these figures for FY22. We plan to report figures for FY23.
Innovating to reduce the use of resources
Laminated veneer lumber (LVL) is an engineered wood product that reduces the use of wood by up to 40%. This new material is strong enough to replace metal in some applications, which greatly reduces the climate impact. The process also generates less waste than many other processing methods. The iconic KLIPPAN sofa is one example of how we are using this new technology to create better, more sustainable products at lower costs.
Continuing to increase the share of recycled polyester in our supply chain
In 2020, we reached the milestone of 90% recycled content in textile products made of polyester. In FY21 we widened our measurement scope to include all polyester and fibre applications, excluding rigid plastic, but including all fibre-based applications such as filling in cushions, duvets, sofas, mattresses and other similar products. In FY22, 88% of the polyester in our supply chain was recycled.
Read more about our transformation towards recycled polyester
Alternatives and end-of-life solutions for foam
Developing more circular services
As always, nobody can do everything alone – which is why we need to develop long term relationships with our customers and co-create the future together. To do this, we are testing and developing new business models and concepts. We want to enable customers to prolong the life of their IKEA products through convenient solutions that inspire people to acquire, care for, and pass them on in circular ways.
Creating markets for second-hand items
Making it easier to prolong product life
Joining forces with others and leading by example
At IKEA, we want to lead by example, influence change, and share our stories and insights while listening and learning from others. We work with long-term commitments and relationships with suppliers, business partners, NGOs, communities and different stakeholders around the world. All to accelerate the transformation from a linear to a circular economy.
IKEA partners and collaborators have become increasingly important in solving complex challenges. For example, we are collaborating with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF) to establish a common language around circularity. In September 2021, EMF published a glossary of circular terms created in collaboration with IKEA.
Read more about the collaboration between IKEA and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation
Through our advocacy efforts, we support policymakers with knowledge and experience as they set the legislative foundation to enable a systemic transformation into a circular economy. We’re focusing on creating clarity as well as providing a factual basis for global common definitions and cross border regulatory alignment.
