IKEA and Healthy Materials Lab engage in a conversation about the global company’s ambitious sustainability goals and their plans to meet them.
Lars-Erik Fridolfsson, head of Fair and Equal, Sustainable Transformation at IKEA, shared a stimulating presentation and answered questions from Healthy Materials Lab and an audience of professionals about how they are addressing overconsumption, greenhouse gas emissions, health and equity while creating well-designed affordable products.
Lars shared new agendas, such as a spare parts program, designing with recycled materials, and phasing out toxic chemicals from their products. We spoke about facing the complexities of sustainability including the basis of their democratic design principles and cooperation between business units to ensure material choices and value chains reduce carbon emissions. From supporting living wages to the elimination of PFAS in textiles, the conversation revealed details and insights into how the world’s largest furniture manufacturer is working toward a future we all need.
”I believe that we must be optimistic. Inequality is not the law of nature— it actually has been created by people… [which] means that we can solve it.” - Lars-Erik Fridolfsson
Introduction by Senior Researcher of Donghia healthier Materials Library, Luam Melake; Speaker from IKEA Lars-Erik Fridolfsson in conversation with HML Co-Founder and Design Director, Jonsara Ruth.
Lars-Erik Fridolfsson is head of the Fair & Equal department in the Sustainable Transformation division at IKEA. His role is to define, develop, and maintain strategic commitments in the company’s Fair & Equal agenda and to integrate topics in equitable labor strategies into the company’s business development with clear ambitions, commitments, and goals. It’s also about simplifying these complex topics for effective business decision-making.
Lars has over 20 years experience at IKEA in various HR manager roles in different parts of the company’s value chain. He has been stationed both in Vietnam and India leading the HR agenda in Southeast Asia and South Asia in the Purchasing organizations. He has been Global Succession Manager and Talent Manager in Sweden. He has been working extensively with Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in various roles and believes that building inclusive business and resilient societies is crucial for a sustainable future.
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