Work & Business
How IKEA Goes All In On Its Sustainable Ethos
Sweden and sustainability are synonymous with IKEA. Just one stroll through the store and you’ll notice markers – from products to the walls – that highlight the company’s manufacturing and production processes and how it all ties back to its environmental impact.
From our tour of its latest store opening, to our own personal experience with the brand, here are eight products and materials that represent the organization’s sustainability efforts.
Engineered Quartz
As we made our way through IKEA’s Kitchen department, we came across its quartz countertops. This material is mostly ground quartz combined with resins that turns into a durable, non-porous material. IKEA’s quartz counters come in 29 color varieties with four edge options.
Composite material
By utilizing composite material, IKEA is able to create polished finished products while utilizing a more sustainable foundation of the product itself. If you’ve built a BILLY bookshelf, you know exactly what we’re talking about.
SILKEBORG
We fell in love with these rugs, which are made with patches of old, traditional, handmade Turkish rugs to make a completely new, reimagined rug. This is just one example of IKEA upcycling materials to make new products.
Bamboo
This material grows fast, unlike traditional foresting for wood products. It’s also tolerant of moisture, making it a great material for bathrooms. That said, one of our favorite IKEA bamboo products is this beautiful pendant light.
Alternative Down
IKEA offers some of its comforts filled with down alternative materials, meaning they don’t use real fowl feathers for those products. IKEA’s down alternative comforters are filled with lyocell, which is a type of rayon.
TJENA
These boxes are study, stackable, made of 80% recycled paper. Using recycled materials means less energy, less water and fewer chemicals in the production process.
KUGGIS Series
This product series is made of recycled PET plastics, which reduce the need to create new plastic materials.
Veggie-balls
Going to IKEA for anything but real Swedish Meatballs seems blasphemous, but these balls of goodness are made with chick peas, green peas, carrots, peppers and kale, among other nutrient-rich ingredients.
Learn more about IKEA’s philosophy at IKEA-USA.com/People+Planet, and learn more about each of its sustainable materials here.
