The agreement between Sweden’s Ingka Group, IKEA’s largest retailer and H2 Green Steel will be effective from 2026 and will involve IKEA using hydrogen produced steel in 50% of IKEA’s warehouses globally. This will mean that Ingka will reduce its carbon footprint and IKEA will become climate positive by using the hydrogen produced steel as its racking in its warehouses.

The companies aim for this to be a long-standing agreement, as Ingka Group has decided that their plan is to purchase at least 12,00 tons of green steel from H2 every year. This will greatly benefit both businesses.

H2Green Steel is currently setting up its first green steel plant in Boden, Sweden, where hydrogen steel will be produced through a process using direct reduction of iron (DRI). This will result in the production process emitting 95% less emissions than the normal steel production. This production site in Boden is expected to be functioning by 2025, with the aim of producing 5 million tons of green steel annually.

The CEO of H2 Green Steel Henrik Henriksson, described how the manufacturing process of green steel works and why the process is so much more environmentally friendly, “The traditional heavy polluting blast furnaces which use coal and coke are replaced by direct reduction processes that use green hydrogen instead. That means that instead of carbon emissions, the main by-product in our process is clean steam.”

The Chief Sustainability Officer at Ingka Group, Karen Pflug said, “The innovation of companies like H2 Green Steel holds great potential for a positive business and climate impact. We are delighted to announce this agreement, as we also want to inspire other business to follow.” After seeing the significant amount of steel used in the racking at warehouses, Pflug also commented, “If more companies who use steel move to source green steel, it would have a significant impact on global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.”

Henriksson also expressed that H2 are happy with the partnership, “Working together with customers like Ingka Group is the foundation for how we build our company.”

This agreement is certainly a strong one as H2 have already reported multiple previous agreements between them and companies who want the ability to use green steel to reduce their carbon footprint and become more environmentally friendly.