Ingka Group Reporting FY21 shows progress in reducing climate footprint

IKEA has long promised to stand by the side of the many people. This is true now more than ever. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Ingka Group has continued to support people experiencing poverty and inequality and continues to strive towards its ambition to inspire and enable 1 billion people to live a better everyday life within the boundaries of the planet by 2030.

The new Ingka Group Reporting FY21*, released today, shows that while Ingka Group has grown its business by 17.6 percent since FY16, it has seen a 6.5 percent reduction in its climate footprint over the same time. Ingka Group has high ambitions when it comes to tackling climate change and is taking bold steps across the business to help achieve the IKEA commitment to become a climate positive and circular business by 2030.

“We continue to side with the many people in a time when life at home has never been more important. Thanks to the great efforts of our 170 000+ colleagues we managed to come together as people and as a business, delivering a growth of 6.5%. We are determined to be a force for good, with people and the planet at the heart of everything we do. Looking ahead after the challenging year, we will build better into everything we do - better Homes, better Lives, better Planet, and better Company”, says Jesper Brodin, CEO Ingka Group.

IKEA is committed to becoming climate positive by 2030 through reducing more greenhouse gas emissions than the IKEA value chain emits, 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. As part of that commitment Ingka Group is more determined than ever to be part of solving the climate crisis and showing that healthy and sustainable living can be affordable, attractive and accessible for the many people.

In addition to a range of actions across the business to reduce emissions, as well as investments into renewable energy, Ingka Group has an opportunity to inspire and enable the billions of people it reaches to take climate action in their own lives and is testing a number of services and solutions for a more sustainable life at home, including buy back and take back services, in-store circular hubs, online platforms for second-hand products, and introducing a more plant-based food offer.

To help achieve the IKEA goal to become a climate positive and circular business by 2030, Ingka Group will now focus reporting around four big movements, which is reflected in this year’s new report. These four movements now form the basis of Ingka Group’s financial and non-financial performance against a wide range of goals and indicators:

• Better homes - Helping more people to have better homes:                                                         Passion for a better life at home is what makes IKEA. For generations, IKEA has been on a mission to understand the needs, challenges and aspirations of the many, bringing inspiring and affordable home furnishings to people with big dreams and thin wallets.  Now Ingka Group is transforming its business to bring IKEA to more people, and to make healthy and sustainable living desirable and affordable for the many, not just the few.
• Better lives - Contributing to better lives for co-workers, customers and communities:
  People are at the heart of everything at IKEA. IKEA wants to take a leading role in creating a fairer and more equal society and improve the lives of the millions of people that interact with, or are impacted by, the company. Starting with co-workers and supply chain, extending to customers, neighbourhoods, communities and society at large, IKEA is determined to be a force for good. 
• Better planet - Playing our part in creating a better planet:
  We only have one planet, the home we all share. To achieve the IKEA vision for a better everyday life for the many people, IKEA has to play its part in tackling climate change and creating a circular economy. And we have to act now – this is the most important decade. IKEA is taking bold steps across the business to help achieve the goal to become a climate positive and circular business by 2030 and is making it easier for our customers to act too.  
• Better company - Creating a better company for today and future generations:  
  IKEA does business with a humanistic outlook, guided by the IKEA vision and values but always adapting to a changing world. Business is structured to ensure financial resilience and profit is reinvested to help IKEA keep growing and improving. IKEA pushes to be a fair, inclusive and empowering company with good governance, equal opportunities and respect for human rights across the entire value chain.  

“Across our business, we have continued to make progress towards our ambitious commitments for people and planet. Whether through our newly launched electricity subscription service from wind and solar in Sweden, access to EV chargers in our car parks, or the chance to buy second hand and get advice on how to care for your furniture through our circular hubs - more and more of our customers are able to experience our efforts to make healthy and sustainable living more affordable and accessible for the many, says Karen Pflug, Chief Sustainability Officer, Ingka Group.

“Progress is rarely linear and simple - we are always learning as we work to overcome challenges, especially in a year when the impacts of the pandemic continued to affect our whole value chain in various ways. I am proud of the commitment shown by all my co-workers and our partners to make our vision a reality,” she says.

Ingka Group Reporting FY21 highlights include:

• Ingka Group has invested EUR 2.5 billion in renewable energy since 2009, with another EUR 4 billion committed by 2030. Today, it owns and manages 547 wind turbines in 14 countries, 10 solar parks and 935,000 solar panels on the roofs of IKEA stores and warehouses. Together, this produces more than 4TWh, equivalent of the annual consumption of over 1 million European households.
• Sweden became the first IKEA market to offer an electricity subscription service from wind and solar
• EUR 110 million “Tack!” in pension contribution to our co-workers
• 4,6 billion visits to IKEA.com (3,6 billion in FY20)
• The new IKEA app was launched in all markets but one and has 33.8 million downloads so far
• Ingka Group reached many more with home inspiration and solutions, expanding in city centres and opening 26 new locations
• The new online interior design service helped 40,000 people in 29 countries to create a better home
• Continued to explore how to be more circular, introducing 170 circular hubs in 26 of our markets, where customers can buy second hand and nearly new furniture and get advice on how to maintain, clean and personalise their IKEA products. More than 260,000 customers used our spare parts service in FY21, with 4.2 million spare parts provided. 
• Having supported a total of 802 refugees in 22 countries through our Skills for Employment refugee integration initiative by the end of FY21, the new goal is to support 2,500 refugees in 30 countries by 2022.
• Winnow, a company we have invested in, has developed an innovative food waste tracking and analytics solution that uses AI to reduce waste in commercial kitchens. We have now installed Winnow at 364 IKEA stores that we operate (93% of our total), up from 263 in FY20.

This year the Ingka Group Reporting will be made even more accessible and be available in three different formats with the increased ambition to be even more transparent.

The full Ingka Reporting FY21 is available here on the Ingka.com reporting hub. On the reporting hub, you can also find and download the Annual Summary FY21 - a short overview of highlights and progress towards our commitments, and the Data & Progress FY21 pdf with detailed data, policies and frameworks.

*The financial year 2021 (referred to as FY21) of the Ingka Group (Ingka Holding B.V. and its controlled entities) refers to the period between 1 September 2020 and 31 August 2021 and the entities controlled by Ingka Holding B.V. during this time. Ingka Group operates under franchise agreements with Inter IKEA Systems B.V., the worldwide IKEA franchisor

**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.

For further information, journalists and media professionals can contact us at press.office@ingka.com or by calling +46 70 993 6376.

Ingka Group (Ingka Holding B.V. and its controlled entities) is one of 12 different groups of companies that own and operate IKEA retail under franchise agreements with Inter IKEA Systems B.V. Ingka Group has three business areas: IKEA Retail, Ingka Investments and Ingka Centres. Ingka Group is a strategic partner in the IKEA franchise system, operating 392 IKEA stores in 32 countries. These IKEA stores had 657 million visits during FY21 and 4.3 billion visits to IKEA.com. Ingka Group operates business under the IKEA vision - to create a better everyday life for the many people by offering a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible can afford it.

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