The Sustainability Year in Stories: January 2024

December 21, 2024

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IKEA CEO Jesper Brodin

We look at the articles that made the news in sustainability in 2024. Today, it is January's turn, featuring IKEA and Unilever

IKEA's Ingka Group: 80 Years of Sustainability Success

When 17-year-old Ingvar Kamprad, who lived on the Elmtaryd farm near the village of Agunnaryd, started a mail order company where he delivered his goods by bicycle, he could not possibly have imagined how that business would look today.

Now synonymous with stylish, affordable, accessible homeware and furniture, the yellow initials from Ingvar’s name and address emblazoned against a vibrant blue can be found on giant stores around the world – IKEA.

Much has changed since then of course, but Sweden’s most famous export (ahead of Spotify, H&M, and Volvo) continues to transform and invest to be more affordable, accessible, and sustainable.

Annual Summary and Sustainability Report

The latest Annual Summary and Sustainability Report shows that IKEA's largest retailer Ingka Group has continued to put people and planet at the heart of its transformation, while never taking its eye off the ball when it comes to delivering great customer experiences.

In FY23, while the company saw revenues rise 31%, it simultaneously reduced its climate footprint by 24.3% (compared to the FY16 baseline).

“This year we celebrated 80 years of IKEA. So much has changed in eight decades, yet we are still guided by the same vision: to create a better everyday life for the many people,” said Jesper Brodin, CEO, Ingka Group, announcing the summary and report.

“That has never been more important or relevant than today. One of the highlights is that we managed to reduce our climate footprint while growing the business.”

Diving deeper into the Sustainability Report we see four key ‘movements’:

Better homes
Better lives
Better planet
Better company

These cover both financial and non-financial performance against a wide range of goals and provides a transparent overview of the Ingka Group business.

Ingka Group focused on having a positive impact on everyone its business touches. This included supporting 1,135 refugees through its Skills for Employment programme. A further 99,000 people living in areas near IKEA stores benefitted from the Ingka Group Neighbourhoods scheme.

Unilever CEO Hein Schumacher

Unilever’s Global Strategy for Reducing Supply Chain Plastic

Unilever has invested heavily developing paper-based solutions and adopting biodegradable or reusable materials for its extensive global supply chain of consumer products. The most difficult to switch are the very products that Unilever makes—liquid-based goods.

Unilever became a signatory of The Ellen McArthur Foundation’s global commitment upon its launch in 2018, which targets plastic use and management.

In The Global Commitment 2024 Progress Report, The Foundation shares a holistic overview of the current state of plastic use and the actions that led to these gains. The report is published as a collaboration between The Foundation and the United Nations (UN) Environment Programme as a means of analysing the progress made.

The report covers all areas from unnecessary plastic packaging to post-consumer recycling and future strategies for 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable materials.

Pablo Costa, Global VP of Packaging at Unilever, explains: “It’s a voluntary initiative – led by EMF in collaboration with UNEP – which first launched in 2018, when the world faced the stark reality of a future where the amount of plastic in the ocean could surpass the number of fish”.

The problem of plastic: A key consideration for a sustainable supply chain

Focusing initially on the problem areas of plastic, the report shares activity against qualitative targets that producers, brands and retailers commit to.

The 2024 report says that Global Commitment signatories keep one barrel of oil in the ground every two seconds, avoid 3.4 million tonnes of CO₂ per year and have avoided 9.6 million tonnes of virgin plastic since 2018.

Between 2018 and 2023, the progress report says Unilever decreased its use of virgin plastic from baseline by 18% and designed 72% of its plastic packaging for recycling.

Committed companies move away from single-use plastics

Using less single-use plastic doesn’t simply mean finding alternatives, but the entire system of procurement, manufacturing and distribution of goods with new materials—often with different characteristics to those used previously.

The report suggests that while major investment is pumped into this, there has been little growth in the past couple of years. This is likely the result of continued investigation as companies are yet to reach the stage of delivering on-shelf sustainable packaging solutions for things like meat and other food products.

"I’m proud that many of our biggest brands – like Hellmann’s, Dove and Sunlight—are using high levels of PCR in their packaging,” says Pablo.

“Using recycled materials not only helps to ensure that more plastic is collected and recycled, and—crucially—diverted away from the environment, but it also has a significantly lower overall greenhouse gas footprint than virgin plastic across the full packaging life cycle. Together, Global Commitment signatories are estimated to be contributing to the equivalent of a barrel of oil being left in the ground every two seconds.”