Ingka Group Publishes Annual Sustainability Report FY24

January 30, 2025  by Karen Parrish in Business Strategy, Industry   

As part of its ongoing climate commitments, the report shows that the company has reduced its climate footprint by -30.1% while growing the business, compared to the FY16 baseline. This was achieved while revenues have increased by 23.7% over the same period. 96.6% of electricity in 28 countries is now sourced from renewable energy and 41.1% of customer home deliveries are being made by zero emission vehicles – efforts that support the transition to net zero. As a part of the company’s commitment to invest EUR 7.5 billion by 2030, an additional EUR 0.7 billion was invested and committed in renewable energy generation.

Over the financial year, Ingka Group continued to invest across its business by lowering prices on thousands of products and at the same time becoming more accessible with 3 new stores in Japan, Norway and Switzerland and 40 Plan and Order Points, as well as an addition of 3 new Ingka Centres meeting places. In parallel, the company invested in development within digital, logistics and automation solutions to improve the customer experience throughout IKEA. This included strengthening the use of AI, with new features added to the IKEA app, integrating digital technology into every element of customers’ shopping journey.

Despite the year being marked by economic uncertainties, Ingka Group continues to balance purpose and profit with investments made for the long-term across all parts of the business. By the end of FY24 EUR 4.2 billion had been invested or committed in renewable energy investments since 2009, supporting the low carbon transition beyond its value chain. Through its focus on improving better lives over 3,700 refugees have now been supported through its Skills for Employment programme that provides refugees with work experience, skills training and language lessons.

Ingka Group is committed to taking action on climate change in line with the Paris Agreement and during 2023 strengthened its climate targets to halve absolute emissions across the value chain by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050 at the latest. The updated targets are part of the IKEA strengthened climate ambition ‘Net Zero and Beyond’ and were validated in April 2024 by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

The Ingka Group report is structured around four key movements***, Better Homes, Better Lives, Better Planet and Better Company – which encompass both financial and non-financial performance against a wide range of goals and provides a transparent account of performance, challenges, and achievements over the past year across all parts of the Ingka Group business: IKEA Retail, Ingka Centres and Ingka Investments.

The Ingka Group reporting website (on ingka.com) provides a summary of FY24 performance, with progress and challenges and an update against our targets. On the site you can download the full Ingka Group Annual Summary and Sustainability Report FY24 – an overview of highlights, progress, and challenges towards our commitments with detailed data, policies, and frameworks.

Ingka Group Reporting FY24 highlights include:

Better Homes:

— Lowered the prices of thousands of products across our home furnishing range by an average across all countries of 9%.
— Opened 43 new IKEA locations including 3 new stores and 40 plan and order points, as well as 3 new Ingka Centres meeting places.
— Scaled up our circular services including buying back over 495,000 used products from customers through our Buyback service with around 260,400 customers using our Buyback service and selling second-hand items at discounted prices in our As-Is areas in 365 stores. Provided over 8 million free assembly parts to 2.2 million customers.
— Piloted IKEA Preowned, a peer-to-peer second-hand marketplace, in Oslo and Madrid to enable customers to buy and sell used IKEA furniture at even lower prices.
— Served food to around 665 million people last year. By offering plant-based meals on our menus, we’re helping customers choose diets made up of more plants and less meat. Provided plant-based food to customers at our food outlets at the same or lower price than the meat-based alternatives, including our new plant-based breaded nuggets.
— Enhanced the omnichannel retail experience with new features in the IKEA app that integrate in store and online shopping. New features include a 3D product visualizer, back-in stock notifications, a scan and pack tool to save time at the checkouts and wish lists to organize favourite products.
— Refreshed our Sustainable Living Shops design and showcased locally relevant tips, ideas and products. We also launched our Sustainable Living Shops online to make it even easier for customers to fulfill their needs in the home, at an affordable price.

Better Lives:
— Supported 81,080 people through our social impact and emergency response programs with co-workers spending over 132,400 hours volunteering for local causes and advocating for change.
— Maintained a 50/50 gender balance in our management positions (all levels of management). Although this target was originally for FY22, we continue to measure ourselves against it, reflecting the importance of this issue.
— 84% of co-workers report that they can be themselves at work (FY23: 85%). Inclusion Index helps us measure progress on creating an inclusive culture based on six questions in our global co-worker survey.
— We have provided over 3,700 refugees in 26 countries with training via our Skills for Employment programme since 2019, with 887 completing it during the last year. We have now committed to supporting a further 3,000 refugees and asylum seekers into work by the end of 2027.

Better Planet:
— The Ingka total climate footprint (scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions) has decreased by 30.1% from FY16 baseline and 4.3% compared with FY23. The decrease was achieved against a 23.7% increase in revenue.
— 41% of retail home deliveries (over 6.3 million deliveries) were made by zero emission vehicles, up from 24.6% the previous year. Due to challenges, including lack of availability of suitable zero-emissions vehicles and charging infrastructure in some of our countries, an updated target of more than 90% of home deliveries made by zero-emissions vehicles by 2028 has now been set.
— We launched our new net zero climate targets to halve absolute emissions across the value chain by 2030, contribute to emissions reductions in society and reach net zero by 2050 at the latest. These targets were validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), confirming they align with a 1.5-degree pathway.
— 96% of the electricity Ingka Group used in its operations was from renewable sources (96.0% in FY23). 100% renewable electricity consumption across our IKEA stores and Ingka Centres meeting places in 28 countries.
— Continue to reduce operational waste and 77.7% of operational waste was recycled compared to 75.9% the previous year.

Better Company:
— Revenue landed at EUR 41.8 billion with a positive net income of EUR 0.8 billion despite investing EUR 2.1 billion in lowering prices for customers and a 3.8% decrease in the home furnishing sector market. Our total tax bill including property and other taxes was EUR 1.2 billion.
— To ensure that we make IKEA more affordable, accessible, and sustainable, a large part (FY24 85%) of net income was reinvested in the company. The remaining part (FY24 15%) was paid as dividend to the sole owner of Ingka Group, Stichting INGKA Foundation to provide funding to the IKEA Foundation, a strategic grant-making philanthropy. Since it was established, the IKEA Foundation has granted EUR 2 billion to partners working in the areas of poverty and climate change.
— Ingka Investments has invested or committed to invest EUR 4.2 billion in wind and solar farms and the wider renewable transition since 2009.
— Our AI literacy initiative is upskilling co-workers on the responsible use of AI. Over 4,000 co-workers have participated in AI training and our AI literacy awareness resources have been viewed over 54,000 times.

Photo: Karen Pflug, Chief Sustainability Officer, Ingka Group