IKEA Land Use Footprint : Quantification of Carbon Emissions and Removals from Forest Lands, Plants and Wood Products

Sammanfattning: Accounting for carbon removals and reducing the carbon emissions related to the LULUCF sector has become a relevant target to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5ºC, in alignment with the Paris Agreement. The role of this sector as such an important natural carbon sink is getting the attention of the research community, corporations, and institutions. Accounting for carbon removals and emissions from land, plants, and products seems to be a very attractive cost-efficientstrategy, especially to be part of the companies’ carbon footprint in their way to become climatepositive. However, the current lack of guidelines concerning this type of assessment is still a significant obstacle for many of them to join this pathway. This study aims to provide an approach for quantifying this carbon footprint for the case of IKEA’s wood-based products. With that purpose, a methodology for performing this assessment has been developed. The focus is on two main sections of the company’s carbon footprint, the land-use carbon footprint associated with the harvested wood materials, and the climate benefit of storing carbon in these biogenic products during their lifetime. This theoretical model is based on the principles included in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories and the International Reference Life Cycle Data System dynamic accounting method, including the directions that the Greenhouse Gas Protocol is adopting to develop the new standard. This analysis shows how the land carbon removals or emissions and delayed emissions associated with IKEA wood-based products vary depending on their origin and type of material. Whether the sourcing countries' performance for storing carbon in land is favourable or not relies on the forest management practices occurring at a national level. In addition, during the last years, national forests have suffered a general shrinking effect in their carbon stocks, which could cause negative effects for the development of their potential and future assessments.