IKEA x share: Kasia Dulko-Gaszyna on the sustainable partnership

Since 2020, our share water has been available not only in supermarkets and drugstores, but also at the popular furniture giant IKEA. And we are very proud of that. Because with IKEA we can not only reach a lot of people every day who donate a day of drinking water by buying our water, but we also have a partner at our side who shares our visions and values, especially when it comes to sustainability. To mark the three-year anniversary of this partnership, we therefore spoke to Kasia Dulko-Gaszyna, who, as Sustainability Manager, is responsible for implementing IKEA Germany's sustainability strategy. In the interview, she tells us what impact the share water has, what efforts IKEA is also making to raise awareness of the issue of water, and how sustainability and consumption go together from her point of view.

Dear Kasia, our share water has been available in all IKEA stores since 2020. We can generate an incredible reach with it. We wanted to use it to finance 8 drinking water fountains per year. Were we able to achieve this goal?

Exactly, we have been offering our customers in IKEA stores in Germany share mineral water bottles for three years now. Since sales started, we have already sold around 5.7 million bottles and donated 5.7 million days of clean drinking water. This has enabled 26 wells and hand pumps to be built and repaired in Liberia, Colombia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Côte d'Ivoire and Sierra Leone, providing more than 100 million liters of drinking water to local people.

Why did you decide to cooperate with share back then? Why do you think the two companies fit together so well?

We were convinced by your "1+1 principle" and the quality of the product. In addition, we live by the same values. IKEA and share are about making the world a little better. With share, we have a partner at our side with whom we can jointly assume social responsibility and inspire many people to live a more sustainable life. The water from share is one of our many offers with which we promote social consumption and more sustainable product alternatives.

IKEA is not only committed to more sustainable access to drinking water through the sale of share water. What else are you doing to raise awareness of the issue of water (and saving it)?

Less than 3% of the world's water is fresh water, and even less is practically available to humans, so it's essential to use this resource carefully. As a global brand with millions of daily customer encounters, we have a huge responsibility to reduce our carbon footprint - from the way we source raw materials, to our operations, to the products and services we offer.

On the one hand, we focus on the efficient use of water and integrate proven water-saving technologies in our buildings. At IKEA, we also focus on collecting and reusing water. On the other hand, we also want to raise awareness among our customers. IKEA is committed to the "50L Home Coalition" , which aims to achieve a daily water consumption of 50 liters per person. Currently, the average daily water consumption per person in Germany is 122 liters. So we still have a lot to do. And the easiest way we can help our customers save water is through our products.

How do you raise awareness among your customers about water in store or online?

Through all our communication channels, both online and offline, we want to inspire our customers to lead a more sustainable life at home, and saving water is of course a very important topic. We want to show that if you change a few everyday habits at home, you can save many liters of precious drinking water every day and thus prevent valuable resources and money from being wasted unnecessarily.

For example, our ÅBÄCKEN spray nozzle makes it possible to reduce the tap's consumption by around 95% in spray mode and 66% in jet mode compared to mixer taps with a water flow rate of 5.7 l/min. In addition, we always offer people tips and tricks that make it easy to save water. For example, you don't always need a whole sink full of water to do the washing up. You can reduce your water consumption by simply putting a smaller tub in the sink and using that to do the washing up. Whether in our furniture stores, on our website IKEA.de or on our social media channels, the topic of saving water is really unavoidable.

Like us, you have been on board since 2020 and, as Sustainability Manager, you are responsible for IKEA's global sustainability strategy. What would you say are your greatest successes for more sustainability at IKEA? What were the most important milestones?

I have been working as Sustainability Manager at IKEA Germany since 2020, but I have actually been working in sustainability at IKEA since 2011. Before that, I led our "People and Planet Positive" strategy in Poland. With this sustainability strategy, we set ourselves important sustainability goals in 2012 that we want to achieve by 2030 and have already achieved some successes. To name just a few examples: We have been using 100% green electricity in Germany for several years now. Since 2020, IKEA has been generating more renewable energy in this country than is consumed in the entire operation. Currently, 19 furniture stores and warehouse facilities in this country can already generate electricity using solar energy. In addition, in Germany we have achieved - and even exceeded - the global goal of halving our food waste in furniture stores by the end of 2021. A few more milestones: The introduction of the so-called Sustainable Living Shops and the conversion of the Fundgrube into the Second Chance Market - two new ways to present our sustainable and circular products even better and to draw more attention to them.

What other responsibilities do you have as Sustainability Manager at IKEA?

The task of me and my team is essentially to set the direction for the sustainability strategy and the accompanying activities in Germany. We also monitor our performance and ensure that all areas of the company are able to work towards a more sustainable future. No one can handle the task of sustainable transformation alone. We in the Sustainability Team ensure that the organization is working on the right goals and instruments to achieve this. One actor has to keep an eye on the big sustainability agenda and keep all the threads together, and that's where we come in.

Sustainability and consumption – aren’t they mutually exclusive?

This is probably the question I have been asked most often since I started this job. From our perspective, sustainability is not about not consuming anything at all. That would be utopian. Rather, at IKEA we focus on doing it right, valuing resources and materials and keeping products in the cycle instead of saying goodbye to them after the shortest possible period of use and never seeing them again. This is a step we must take together as a society. As a company of our size and reach, we have a special responsibility in this important transformation, which we also want to stand up for: We are working to become climate positive and circular by 2030. We source raw materials from more sustainable sources and are constantly working to find better solutions for us people and our planet.

What are your goals for IKEA's sustainability strategy over the next three years? Where do you want it to go and what do you see as the biggest challenges?

We have big plans for 2030. We want to do our part to tackle the climate crisis, counteract unsustainable consumption and eliminate injustice. Our three priorities that we focus on are: enabling a healthy and sustainable life, becoming a circular and climate-positive company and creating fairness and equality.

What would you like to share with our readers - how can we work together to further promote conscious and sustainable consumption?

I am a big fan of working on the so-called "future self-sufficiency" of our households. I dream of everyone being able to produce clean energy for their own needs in their own home, heat in an environmentally friendly way, collect rainwater for their own needs and use it multiple times, and grow their own food. This would not only allow us to live more sustainably, but would also prepare us for various energy, water, and climate crises in the future.

But we can start today with small changes and without major investments. A simple tip: If possible, it is advisable to use second-hand products. Our Second Chance market in IKEA stores is a great opportunity to give furniture a second life. Products that are still in very good quality can be bought here at an affordable price. And with our "Second Chance" service, you can also sell used, well-preserved IKEA furniture back to us so that you don't have to throw it away.