IKEA

Reasons to avoid

1. Investigations by Greenpeace and the groups Agent Green and Bruno Manser Fonds linked IKEA's supply chain to destructive logging in some of Europe's last old-growth forests in Romania's Carpathian Mountains. Researchers documented more than 50 suspected forestry-law violations across sites that overlapped with EU-protected Natura 2000 areas.mongabay.com2024-04-25
2. A 2022 investigation reported that IKEA suppliers used forced labor from Belarusian penal colonies, including facilities known for holding and mistreating political prisoners. IKEA said it took the reports seriously and had moved to exit Belarus, but furniture tied to that prison-labor system had already been sold in Europe and the US for years.cnn.com2022-11-18
3. IKEA's own commissioned investigation confirmed that political prisoners in communist East Germany were forced to make its furniture as recently as the 1980s, and that company representatives at the time were likely aware of it. In late 2024 IKEA pledged 6 million euros to a German government fund compensating victims of that forced labor.fortune.com2024-10-31
4. A 2021 investigation reported by NBC News linked IKEA's popular children's furniture, including its Sundvik line, to pine illegally logged from protected Russian forests and passed through FSC certification. IKEA cancelled the supplier contracts after the findings, but the affected products had already shipped to stores across the US and Europe.nbcnews.com2021-07-14