How much wood from Sweden 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).
IKEA was born in the forests of Småland in southern Sweden, so naturally it was our first wood sourcing market. It supplies a high volume of blonde wood species which reflect our Scandinavian design heritage.
The market has an extensive history of building responsible forest management practices alongside a well-established wood industry. In the early 1990s, the market pioneered development of one of the world’s first national FSC forest certification national standards.
Building on its forestry traditions, Sweden puts a lot of emphasis on investing in academic institutions focused on building the next generation of responsible forest management practices and engineered wood innovations. For many years, IKEA has partnered with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Linnaeus University, providing scholarships to academic studies and opening up IKEA wood supply chains to test and pilot new technological solutions.
Amount of virgin wood used roundwood equivalent (RWE): 1,218,494 m3
Contribution to total IKEA virgin wood used for home furnishing products: 9%
Approximate proportion of Sweden’s total harvest used by IKEA suppliers: 2%
Approximate proportion of Sweden’s forests that are FSC-certified: 70%
Years in IKEA supply chain: 70+
Regions and types of forests
In FY22, virgin wood of Swedish origin used in IKEA products mainly came from actively managed boreal forests from across the entire market.
Wood species
In Sweden, 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 Sweden for solid wood applications were pine and birch.
Recent developments/actions
In recent times, focus and debate has grown in Sweden on how the forests should be managed. This is an important and natural debate for any market and understandably within a market with such a long history of responsible forest management.
In the past year, IKEA was asked to join and participate in several discussions with government and other stakeholders to share our view. We strongly advocate that no matter where forests are based around the world, it is vital that they are managed and looked after for the sake of many rather than the few. Forest owners, government, industry, environmental and social groups must work together to share expertise and opinions and adapt forest management practices accordingly to address the needs of today and tomorrow.