Ingka Group Reports Continued Progress On Climate Footprint Reduction

Ingka Group today publishes its Annual Summary and Sustainability Report FY22* – reporting on performance and achievements over the past year across all areas of the business. It shows that the company is making progress in reducing its total climate footprint (scope 1, 2 and 3), achieving a decrease of 13.6% from baseline year FY16 and a decrease of 6.0% from FY21[1]. The reduction contributes to the overall IKEA climate footprint which saw a 12% reduction in absolute terms compared to FY16. 

The annual report integrates sustainability and climate reporting throughout the business. It provides a transparent account of performance and areas where the business is making progress, as well as the challenges it is addressing. It covers all parts of the Ingka Group business while focusing on four big movements, Better homes, Better lives, Better planet and Better company**. 

Despite global economic and political challenges around the world, Ingka Group continued to keep in sight the needs and dreams of people in life at home and show that healthy and sustainable living can be affordable, attractive, and accessible. This included investments in new and existing stores, digital tools and services, renewable energy, and customer fulfilment. During the year city stores opened in Sweden, the UK, Canada and India to bring the IKEA range closer to more people, and 74 million services such as home delivery, product assembly and installation were performed, improving customer convenience.

“We managed to achieve solid performance in a challenging time, all thanks to the efforts of our 170 000+ IKEA colleagues. Our sense of purpose, creating a better everyday life for the many people, is stronger than ever and I’m very proud of what we have achieved across IKEA Retail, Ingka Centres and Ingka Investments. We have invested in creating a better IKEA by becoming more affordable, accessible and sustainable – the latter showing important progress when it comes to reducing our total climate footprint, while growing the business,” says Jesper Brodin, CEO, Ingka Group.

Ingka Group is taking steps across the business to help achieve the IKEA commitment to become climate positive by 2030***. As the largest IKEA franchisee, it has an important part to play in achieving these commitments, for example, switching to renewable energy, transitioning to zero emission home deliveries, introducing a more plant-based food offer, and offering circular services like buy back and take back. The company works together in partnership with other businesses, industries, society and NGO’s to drive a positive impact on people and the planet, including supporting a world where human rights are a reality for all.

“Throughout the year, we continued to act for a better planet and are pleased to have reduced our climate footprint in our operations and across the IKEA value chain. We have been focused on sustainability for many years, and in that time our co-workers have done great work to improve our performance and develop innovative new approaches to social and environmental issues. This year alone we have sold 32.5 million products in our As-Is areas to help customers embrace circularity and rolled out Sustainable Living Shops within the store across 30 markets. We were also proud to reach a 57.8% reduction in production food waste from our IKEA stores since FY17, going beyond our target by the end of 2021, says Karen Pflug, Chief Sustainability Officer, Ingka Group.

However, we cannot be complacent because there is still so much to be done and we need to accelerate our people and planet commitments. The global challenges that we face as a business and as individuals – rising inequality and the climate crisis, need just as much if not more focus now than ever. We approach these issues with a sense of urgency, staying focused on our long-term goals and working together to create positive change for our business, our customers, our communities, and the planet,” she says.

This year’s report also includes its first ever ‘Young Leaders’ Opinion letter, which is composed of a group of independent activists and professionals under 30 years of age, who are working towards environmental and climate justice. Through a combination of in-person meetings and virtual forums, Young Leaders’ have been collaborating with Ingka Group over the past year to advise on some of the business’s most pressing challenges, including circularity, transparency, as well as sustainability.  

The Ingka Group reporting website (on ingka.com) provides a summary of FY22 performance, with progress and challenges and an update against our targets. On the site you can download the full Ingka Group Annual Summary and Sustainability Report FY22 – an overview of highlights, progress, and challenges towards our commitments with detailed data, policies, and frameworks.

Ingka Group Reporting FY22 highlights include:

Better Homes:

• Extended our clean energy services by introducing a solar offer in California, US and heat pumps in Sweden and introduced our Sustainable Living Shop across 30 markets, to highlight sustainable products and solutions to more customers.
• We also connected with over 37,000 people in 37 countries to conduct our ninth annual Life at Home Report.
• More than 680 million customers to our IKEA locations and IKEA.com saw more than 3.8 billion visits and the IKEA app was downloaded 20.3 million times.
• Opened our first city stores in Sweden, the UK, Canada and India to bring the IKEA range closer to more people and performed 74 million services such as home delivery, product assembly and installation, improving customer convenience.
• We also expanded affordable financial services to China and Ireland, giving more people a chance to improve their homes while keeping their budget in balance.  
• Joined forces with retailer H&M to launch Atelier100 in UK, a unique incubator programme aimed at finding and nurturing up and coming creatives in our local areas.

Better Planet:

• 74.2% of the electricity we used was from renewable sources, an increase from 69.1% in FY21.
• Continued to explore how to be more circular by testing a range of solutions, including repurposing our As-Is areas into circular hubs in 306 stores, enabling customers to buy second-hand and nearly new furniture. 32.5 million products sold in our As-Is areas to help our customers embrace circularity with 1.8 million customers used our spare parts service to repair and extend the life of their IKEA products.  
• Reduced operational waste by 9.5% compared to FY21, our recycling rate has remained stable at 75.7%
• Reduced production food waste by 57.8% from our IKEA stores since FY17, going beyond our target by the end of 2021. The reduction is equivalent to the food used in 20 million meals and 36,000 tonnes of CO2.
• As of October 1st, 2022, all our markets now offer plant-based food at the same or a lower price than the meat-based alternative. This includes our veggie balls, plant balls, veggie hot dogs, and plant-based soft ice.

Better Lives:

• Responded to the impacts of the war in Ukraine. In total, Ingka Group donated EUR 15.2 million in cash and in-kind donations. This included establishing an emergency community support fund that enabled our countries to respond with speed to the needs of local partners working on the ground to assist people fleeing the war in Ukraine.
• We supported a total of 1765 refugees in 22 countries through our Skills for Employment refugee integration initiative by the end of FY22, the goal is to support 2,500 refugees in 30 countries during FY23.

Better Company:

In FY22 Ingka Group progressed towards its investment goal of EUR 6.5 billion in renewable energy by 2030, by investing and committing a record EUR 0,9 billion in renewable energy projects.

• Invested in city-centre real estate including a large site on Oxford Street, London. This is part of a wider focus aimed at bringing IKEA closer to customers through new IKEA store formats in city locations.
• Social housing: We committed EUR 100 million of financing in Ireland as part of a unique initiative for the construction of social housing units across the greater Dublin region.

***IKEA climate positive means to reduce more greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than the IKEA value chain emits by 2030, while growing the IKEA business. IKEA is committed to the Paris Agreement and to contribute to limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. This includes a commitment to halve the absolute net GHG emissions from the total IKEA value chain by 2030. We will achieve this by drastically reducing GHG emissions through science-based targets and by removing carbon from the atmosphere through natural processes and storing it in land, plants and products through better forest and agriculture management within the IKEA value chain. We will contribute to further greenhouse emission reductions in society by going beyond IKEA, such as enabling customers to generate renewable energy at home.

Source : Ingka Group

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