IKEA is the world’s largest retailer of furniture with around 300 stores in 26 countries and around 130,000 employees, of which 96,000 work in retail, and 15,000 in manufacturing in Swedwood. The IKEA group company Swedwood has grown in line with IKEA’s expansion in recent years to become arguably the world’s largest single manufacturer of wooden furniture. Manufacturing some 100 million furniture pieces every year, IKEA Swedwood operations are part of the everyday life of people worldwide. IKEA Swedwood takes an active role and has deployed guidelines and policies in the fields of environment, health, safety, risk management and other welfare issues. IKEA Swedwood does not use wood originating from national parks or reserves and does not accept wood from loggings that threaten high conservation values. IKEA Swedwood have FSC™ certification (Forest Stewardship Council®) Mix or FSC™ Controlled Wood for the flow into all our units, as well as FSC™ forestry management certificate on all own leased forests. IKEA Swedwood implement standards for all their log yards, including water management. IKEA Swedwood treat their foremost raw material with the greatest of consideration during the entire manufacturing process, from its source in nature to its final user.
Livia Tirone
Livia Tirone is an architect, writer and consultant devoted to pioneering and mainstreaming sustainable construction and urban resilience. She was responsible for the design and development of Torre Verde (Green Tower), one of the best-known sustainable construction demonstration buildings in Europe and is the author of the book Construção Sustentável (Sustainable Construction for the Mediterranean Climate Region) and the editor of the magazine with the same name. She hosts more than 30 events on sustainable construction yearly and is a consultant for national and international companies and institutions. She is also a member of the Lafarge Stakeholder Panel and consultant to large enterprises in Portugal and worldwide. For the European Commission’s Directorate General Environment, she chaired the Working Group ‘Sustainable Construction Methods and Techniques’ during 2003. She also accepted the invitation of the Vice-President of the European Commission, and became a member of the European Design Leadership Board, contributing to the creation of the European Design Innovation Initiative and the report ‘Design for Growth and Prosperity’, published in September 2012. Livia Tirone was elected Councillor for the opposition in Lisbon Municipality for the mandate of 2009 until 2013, in the team of former Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes. Over two and a half years, she contributed to local policy by presenting proposals and positions, some of which were actually adopted. This included scaling and fine tuning the sustainability dimension of the Lisbon Urban Master Plan revision and new strategic approaches on unresolved urban challenges, such as social housing, the homeless and elderly people.