Susanne Bergstrand, Environment Manager, IKEA International
IKEA was founded in 1943 in Älmhult, a small village in the southern parts of Sweden. This part of Sweden used to be poor, as it is a harsh area with rocky soil. Many people from this region emigrated to the rich U.S. in the late 1800s. But even if poverty and hardship ruled in this region, it was rich in forests, which has influenced IKEA’s product range.
Coming from the Swedish forests, wood became the natural choice of raw material and a part of our identity. We use mainly Scandinavian species like pine, spruce and birch. About 70% of the raw material IKEA uses come from wood or wood fibers. We believe this is good, because wood is from an environmental point of view one of the best materials to use; it is renewable, recyclable and natural. But there is one precondition: The wood must be produced in a sustainable way.
Being a cost conscious company, IKEA has since the start strived to work with, what we call, small means and not to waste resources. This is according to what an environmentalist today would call “resource efficiency.” But at this time when we didn’t know what environment was all about.
