Bazsux: IKEA's Lena Pripp-Kovac talks to Inhabitat about their sustainability program

IKEA is working hard to create an environment that can help everyone live a sustainable life. That's why they say "to change everything, we need everyone." So far, the company has set aside one billion dollars to move the company toward not just becoming energy positive by 2020, using solar and wind, but also to invest in people and a sustainable supply chain. We sat down with Lena Pripp-Kovack, Sustainability Manager of Range and Supply for IKEA of Sweden in Älmhult, where IKEA's first store popped up in 1958, to talk all about how IKEA is changing the world for the better—one EKTROP sofa at a time.

Inhabitat: Tell us about your role at IKEA

Lena Pripp-Kovac: My responsibility is range and supply from a sustainability point of view. Sustainability has two parts. One is building sustainably, which is the materials we use, how they were produced and how they were transported. The other is the function of the product, which means, does this product actually contribute to a more sustainable life at home? The way we think about it is that there is a built-in function and a function that actually provides for a more sustainable life.

Are there any exciting projects going on at IKEA that you want to share with us?

Lena Pripp-Kovac: A lot of the things we are working on right now have to do with circularity: prolonging the life of products and prolonging the life of materials. We work closely with our suppliers and the whole supply chain, and we spend a lot of time investing in research to determine how to use materials from secondary sources. I don't want to call it waste because it is actually a resource. That's why we work today with an increasing number of recycled materials, even using our own waste. So we collect waste from our stores and produce new products. We also look into how to design products today to prolong their lifespan. We think we've come far, but we still think we can reduce a lot in terms of material use. Then we have our bigger goals for the company, which is to become fully renewably powered. We have, I think, 700,000 solar panels now, and we are working with our suppliers who also have energy saving goals and renewable energy plans.

We are investing 1.5 billion euros in renewable energy; our goal is to be energy positive by 2020. We are also on a journey to transform our cotton to be more sustainable. Last year we reached the goal of ensuring that all of our cotton, no matter where it is sourced, is now more sustainable than previous sources. The next step is to find other alternatives for textiles; we believe that a lot more things will come from wood. The transformation of materials I think is the next big thing for IKEA from here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7ENnyudY6w

And then you go over to sustainability at home, which is more about behavior. We just had a meeting with lots of people around what's an attractive sustainable lifestyle. That I find interesting. What does it mean to have a sustainable life?

You hear a lot about the big solar and wind projects at IKEA, but how are you making the more behind-the-scenes things, like textiles, more sustainable?

Lena Pripp-Kovac: The textile journey is a big one. The first goal we had was to source all the cotton from more sustainable sources. That required that we consolidate our supply chain, and it changed the way we look at dyeing and water treatment plants. This is very critical. The Better Cotton Initiative is based on working with farmers on the ground to reduce fertilizers, reduce pesticides, change the water irrigation system, and ensure that farmers get better yields and money - the social aspect of things. We started working on this 10 years ago because we knew it would take time to transform things with farmers. If we went out and said we'd only buy organic, we would buy everything on the market and no one else would have the availability, so it didn't transform conventional cotton. Which is the biggest part of the problem. We actually felt that the biggest change we could make was to transform the conventional cotton to be better than just buying organic cotton. Which means when you go into an IKEA store it is very seldom that you see a collection that says that this "the" sustainable collection. Because we believe in three things: one, we should have the greatest possible impact. We want to make things efficient and innovate, since we have the capacity to do that, and provide greater access to people with thin wallets. The last part is extremely important. If sustainability is expensive and only for people with big wallets, we don’t define it as sustainable. Low prices ensure access to (all) people. You also have to make sure that does not equal disposable. That's more about the behavior than the product itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNvUeb3OoVY

How is IKEA working towards making the supply chain and workers' lives better?

Lena Pripp-Kovac: What makes us different is that when you ask someone how many suppliers they think we have, they often think thousands and thousands and thousands. But we have around - last year we calculated about 978 suppliers in furniture - and we work very long term. The average time is 10 or 11 years. We always said when we pick a supplier it should be a strategic fit and we should stay with them for a long time. The first thing we do is work with our IWAY code of conduct, which sets conditions like fair wages and safety and environmental requirements on the factory floor. When that is done we do an audit; we have 90 auditors that are trained - they trace forests, or go into factories to do an audit. We also have a little team of calibration auditors who make sure we all audit the same way. That is our ongoing schedule. We audit usually once a year, always unannounced, but we are also present every month at the supplier in case something comes up very visibly for IKEA people. We also have third party auditors to see that we are true to our own self. Our third party auditor finds the same results. On a third level, we also have unannounced audits, which means that we at IKEA don't know [when they will happen], nor does the supplier know. The third party just shows up. Then we both get the results and discuss them. It's of course important that you don't just see that as police activity - it is a result that we share and go through to improve things. The development programs that we set up are designed to track suppliers biggest supply change. [In] Bangladesh, for example, compared to the garment industry which has maybe 500 suppliers, we have seven suppliers: one is ceramic, one is highly industrial - just a machine weaving - and one is lots of women making carpets. We have also worked a lot with working conditions. But since we've been there since the '90s, we know their journey and we picked a journey together.

We see social entrepreneur projects from time to time at IKEA. Is there any plan to expand these types of special collections?

Lena Pripp-Kovac: We will expand the number of projects, but what makes these projects strong is that they are small. The fact that we can work with them and have two, three or four stores supporting that project, we learn from them and they learn from us. It is almost a co-creating situation. There is a region in Malmö where there are a lot of migrant people, refugees coming in. There is a fantastic entrepreneur there working with helping women and introducing them into society. So that's one project connected to one store where they get textiles and they can sew things and just have them in one store.

Are you seeing a lot of demand for a sustainable supply?

Lena Pripp-Kovac: If you want to be part of a long term solution in society, you have to drive things to that end. It is part of our mission to create a better everyday life for the many people, and sustainability is strong there. It is a request we see, but in certain specifics. Sustainability doesn't need to be grey and boring, and it is a complex issue, so we are working on making it understandable and attractive. That's one of our biggest challenges - to communicate - because the biggest way that consumers have been educated over the years is to just put a label on something. But that's not enough - you need to communicate more. To really crack what is a sustainable lifestyle requires more than a label.

How can we get involved with sustainability at IKEA?

Lena Pripp-Kovac: The best thing is to share what a sustainable life is for you. Get the conversation going - it is much more than just sorting waste. How can we make it fun and not just a chore? We believe in access for the many. Everybody should be able to live a sustainable life. We need to see things with a different core value. Even if you buy something that is affordable, it should still have a value. Why do you just keep things that are expensive? There should be other values.

+ IKEA

Images via Kristine for Inhabitat and IKEA