IKEA scaling biobased glue to secure climate inroads

In the Netherlands, ubiquitous furniture and housewares brand IKEA is advancing years-long biobased glue development to solidify its environmental goals.

By volume, IKEA’s most-used raw material is wood. Usually, the wood in its products is actually a composite held together by glue. This fossil-based glue accounts for 5% of the company’s greenhouse gas emissions.

“Almost all boards have been produced with that glue,” says Venla Hemmilä, Material & Technology Engineer for Adhesives at IKEA. “It’s not unheard of to produce boards with biobased glues, but they are expensive. The challenge was finding alternatives at a reasonable price and with the required quality.”

According to Andreas Rangel Ahrens, Head of Climate at Inter IKEA Group, the biobased glue IKEA is looking to scale took close to a decade to develop. Made from corn, the glue is currently used to produce wood boards at IKEA’s Kazlu Ruda, Lithuania site, and plans are to expand its use to other IKEA sites.