How much wood from Lithuania did IKEA use?
We require that suppliers use Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) certified or recycled wood in our home furnishing products. All information presented here is valid for Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) with a reporting period from 1 September 2021 to 31 August 2022 and, unless otherwise specified, applies to virgin wood used in IKEA home furnishing products (excluding paper).
Lithuania is an important wood sourcing market for IKEA suppliers. Over a lengthy period, Lithuania has developed to become one of the most advanced forestry sectors and furniture industry leaders. It has an abundance of pine and birch forests which neighbour a well-functioning industry creating optimal logistic opportunities. It exports a high volume of well manufactured wood-based furniture across the IKEA supply chain around the world.
Amount of virgin wood used roundwood equivalent (RWE): 1,393,557 m3
Contribution to total IKEA virgin wood used for home furnishing products: 10%
Approximate proportion of Lithuania’s total harvest used by IKEA suppliers: 21%
Approximate proportion of Lithuania’s forests that are FSC-certified: 58%
Years in IKEA supply chain: 30+
Regions and types of forests
In FY22, virgin wood of Lithuanian origin used in IKEA products mainly came from actively managed temperate forests and boreal forests across the entire market.
Wood species
In Lithuania, a mix of different wood species was sourced by sub-suppliers to mainly produce engineered composite wood-based material for IKEA home furnishing products. In FY22, the top species sourced from Lithuania for solid wood applications were birch and pine.
Recent developments/actions
With nearly half of Lithuania’s forests being privately owned, to help support the rights and needs of private forest owners, and increase the share of FSC-certified forest, IKEA partnered with a group of small forest owners to assist them to achieve FSC certification. Group certification has been introduced before, to help simplify and lower costs for small private forest owners, but never at this scale. We connected our main suppliers to the process to support the small forest owners to gain market access for their wood, but they are not obliged to supply IKEA. More recently forest contractors responsible for pre-harvesting activities have also joined the group, one of the first examples of these groups working together. In FY22, the FSC-certified forest area led by this group grew to approximately 120,000 hectares with 205 forest owners and 121 forest contractors participating.