Compliance with IWAY, our supplier code of conduct
All our suppliers must comply with IWAY requirements to work with us. Since 2000, IWAY has included a specific section outlining our requirements for forest materials. By working with our committed suppliers to help ensure they source wood and other forest materials from more sustainable sources, together we contribute to improving forest management and achieving the goals set in the IKEA Forest Positive Agenda.
IWAY Standard, Forest Materials Section – Edition 6.0 (PDF, 4.27MB)
Our comprehensive due diligence system
All suppliers must be able to track the origin of the wood used in IKEA products. We require all suppliers to provide reports on their wood use three times a year and be able to provide more information, upon request, within 48 hours. To ensure legality and that the wood meets our critical requirements, IKEA actively implements multiple safeguards through our due diligence system:
- As an initial measure, IKEA requires suppliers to annually submit their wood procurement plans, which helps to identify and proactively mitigate any potential risks. The first safeguard put in place is through our suppliers, who must put procedures in place to implement our requirements throughout their supply chains.
- The second safeguard is managed through our specialist, global Wood Supply & Forestry team, who performs approximately 200 global audits annually. The purpose of these audits is to verify the compliance of the wood entering our supply chain against IKEA requirements.
- As a third safeguard, we request random and targeted third-party audits to verify compliance. IKEA adopts a risk-based approach which means a higher amount of audits are performed in high-risk markets than in low-risk markets.
- FSC is an additional safeguard. FSC is an independent global forest management certification system which develops national forest management standards for responsible forest management and sets strict rules for harvesting and maintenance practices. The FSC chain of custody system ensures that the wood meets the requirements of the certification from the forest to the final product. Issuing an FSC certificate is the role of the independent and accredited certification bodies. Certification bodies annually audit links in our supply chain.
Under no circumstances do we accept wood that fails to meet our critical requirements. If we discover irregularities, we take immediate action.
Regular audits and inspections
In addition to independent third-party auditors, our global Wood supply & forestry team performs audits to make sure that any wood which enters our supply chain meets our strict requirements. Our dedicated team is heavily trained and must pass an approval process to carry out this work.
To address the increasing demand and pressure on the world’s forests, we always assess and work to strengthen our existing control system. In line with this approach, we are:
- significantly increasing the volume of audits of our wood supply chains in markets known to have higher risks of illegal logging by at least 30%
- developing and introducing new technological solutions to further enhance our traceability mechanisms, for instance through piloting blockchain technology
- increasing our number of unannounced audits at suppliers by at least 20%
- increasing the frequency of desk audits and required level of documentation from suppliers
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increasing the amount of external third-party audits by 50% to verify IKEA assessments
- developing the use of forensic tools such as isotope and DNA analysis to verify accuracy of wood sourced for our products
*We consider a goal to be fully reached when we achieve more than 98% fulfilment overall. Due to disruptions or new suppliers/business partners, we cannot guarantee 100% fulfilment at every given point in time.
