Glue as an important contributor towards IKEAs sustainability goals
Role of glue in IKEA´s sustainability strategy
Glue contributes 6% to the total climate impact of IKEA. In a company of IKEAs size that’s a lot. Finding a renewable based solution is a priority in order to meet two key goals set out in the IKEA sustainability strategy – to only use renewable and recycled materials by 2030 and to become climate positive.
Role of SUSBIND in IKEA´s transition to low carbon business
By 2030, our ambition is to become climate positive and regenerate resources whilst still growing the IKEA business. We will achieve this by reducing our footprint in absolute terms – using a science-based approach.
More than half of the IKEA climate footprint comes from the materials in the products and the production. The transformation into low carbon business is underway and IKEA is moving towards recycled and renewable materials. Bio-based or renewable based glues in the furniture production are an important contributor.
We will not be able to do it alone and working together is a key principle and value within IKEA. In Swedish we say ‘tillsammans’ and it can be translated into togetherness. The idea that the best results will come from working together and by pooling a creative and solution-oriented thinking of the group in order to come up with a solution. This principle is visible also in how we view our climate commitments – we state that we will work together with our partners, suppliers and customers around the world to find solutions. Renewable or bio- based glues are no exceptions.
Most people don’t realise how common glue is. It is literally everywhere around us and literally all of it is fossil based – which is why the SUSBIND project and other bio-based glue projects are so important. It is a very common material in IKEA too – one of the main reasons for this is the large quantities of particle and fibre board based products we have in our range.
Wood is a material which goes to the very DNA and core of IKEA. It has been our main material historically and remains so to this very day. We source wood from more than 50 countries and use about 1% of the commercial wood globally – after all we are the largest producer of wood furniture in the world.
A substantial part of the wood used goes into different types of board materials. While solid wood used to be more common in older days, particle-based products have made up the majority of the wood since some time in IKEA. Increasing pressure on resources and scarcity of many types of wood will only further contribute to this development.
About 70% of our products are based on particle and fibre-based boards and around 10% of any such board is made up of glue – making glue a big impact material for us to address in order to lower our overall climate impact.
Read more about IKEA’s sustainability work to become People & Planet Positive:
Author
Signe Damgaard Berggren
Project Leader
Climate Positive Strategic Initiative, Sustainability Range & Supply, IKEA of Sweden AB
(C) RTDS / WoodK+