Treating water with respect

Water is necessary for life – but clean, fresh water is something of a luxury in some parts of the world. That is why water, both when it comes to quantity and quality, is an important issue for IKEA and our suppliers. We aim to become water positive by promoting water stewardship throughout our value chain. By working with others, we will contribute to improved water management and awareness on water issues in all areas where we operate, focusing on both water use and water quality. This is just the start. Through our continued efforts and by working with WWF, we are on the way to being better water stewards.

Becoming water positive

The IKEA Group is committed to being water positive – using water as efficiently as possible in our operations, and promoting good water stewardship throughout and beyond our business. We are all responsible for making sure that freshwater is properly looked after because it is something that we all share and need. Across our operations, we are looking in to different ways of reducing, reusing and recycling water.

Our distribution centres in France invested in capturing rainwater to use in their fire sprinkler systems, saving almost 4,800m3 of water a year, equivalent to almost two Olympic sized swimming pools.

Toilets use a lot of water. In the UK we installed waterless urinals and in Northern Ireland, Spain and several other countries, we are using rainwater from the roof of our store to flush the toilets.

In the Netherlands, we reduced water consumption in IKEA restaurants by installing water meters to help us understand where our biggest impact is and target our efforts.

We need a lot of water to preserve wooden logs in the IKEA factory in Wielbark, Poland. Instead of using drinking water to keep the logs wet, we harvest rainwater. And that doesn’t go to waste either – we treat and recycle it.