IKEA Reducing Air Pollution With Design

Air pollution is a growing health peril and severe global concern. The situation in North India is most alarming, with 9 of 10 of the world most polluted cities situated there. One peril is burning of rice straws, a residue from harvesting rice that widely aggravates pollution and smog. Through the IKEA reducing air pollution initiative called ‘Better Air Now’, launched in 2018, rice straws can instead become a new renewable material source for products. The first results of this initiative can be seen in the IKEA collection FÖRÄNDRING, set to launch later this year.

The long-term ambition for the ‘Better Air Now’ initiative is to include other parts of India and beyond and to create a model for reducing air pollution in other crop burning regions of the world. Therefore IKEA has now joined the Climate and Clean Air Coalition as an actor in the Coalition’s Agricultural Initiative.

The Climate and Clean Air Coalition is a voluntary partnership of governments, intergovernmental organizations, businesses, scientific institutions and civil society organizations committed to improving air quality and protecting the climate through actions to reduce short-lived climate pollutants.

The CCAC’s Agriculture Initiative works to advance methane and black carbon abatement and recovery practices within the sector. In addition to helping reduce the rate of near-term warming, these practices can provide immediate co-benefits for public health, food security and economic development, aligning with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and low-emissions agricultural development.

IKEA reducing air pollution with Forandring

FÖRÄNDRING means ‘change’ in Swedish and illustrates the desire to contribute to positive change; changing current habits where rice straw is being burnt as well as a change for the many people by contributing to better air. The first product prototypes from the collection are being presented at Democratic Design Days 2019 in Älmhult, Sweden.

Says IKEA designer Akanksha Deo, “Growing up in India I have never been able to take clean air for granted, heavy air pollution is part of mine and many other people’s everyday life. The idea of doing something that contributes to improving the situation has given me a lot of energy.” IKEA reducing air pollution is one of the design giant’s many objectives in India.

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