Houston Chronicle by Paul Takahashi Nov. 22, 2019
Ikea said Friday it had acquired 42,000 acres of forestland in East Texas to source wood for its furniture.
The Swedish furniture giant said the acquisition, coupled with the recent purchase of 18,000 acres in Southeast Oklahoma, nearly doubled its U.S. forestry portfolio to 125,000 acres. The retailer declined to share financial details of the transactions.
Ikea previously owned 64,000 acres in Texas, Alabama and South Carolina, including 22,000 acres in the piney woods of Jaspar, Orange, Newton, Hardin and Tyler counties along the Texas-Louisiana border. The company now owns more than 580,000 acres of forestland in the U.S. and Europe.
Ikea , which uses wood in much of its furniture, has been buying forestland since 2014 as it works toward its goal of using 100 percent sustainably sourced wood in its products. The company’s forests are inspected annually by the Forest Stewardship Council to ensure the company is following international principles of good long-term forest management. Last year, IKEA planted 600,000 tree seedlings in the U.S., and nearly 7 million globally.
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