How To Be More Sustainable In The Kitchen with IKEA

Everyone wants to be more sustainable, right? You’ve all seen the stories in the news about how climate change is making polar bears homeless and causing irreversible damage to the planet, haven’t you? Well, what are you going to do about it? If you’re anything like me, your answer to that question is probably: I have no idea.

Knowing how you can go about becoming more environmentally friendly in your day-to-day life is not easy. One of the best places to start trying to be more sustainable – and a place where I assume you already spend a great deal of time – is the kitchen. We’ve teamed up with our good friends at IKEA to provide you with some simple ways you can become more sustainable.

Water is a finite source and less than 3% of the water on our planet is fresh. That’s why IKEA set about making kitchen and bathroom taps that reduce water consumption. The ÄLMAREN kitchen tap is designed to reduce water consumption significantly while keeping the water pressure just right. This means you can lower your water usage and your bills while still cleaning all your dirty plates and relieving some of the pressure to conserve our planet’s water. In conjunction with that eco-friendly tap, it's also worth being a bit more tactical when you’re doing the washing up. Get yourself an affordable GRUNDVATTNET washing up bowl for optimum efficiency. Fill that tub up with soapy water and use that to wash up your crockery instead of running a constant stream of hot water. Stop pouring your money down the drain, MOB. Literally.

It’s tempting to deck out your kitchen with loads of high-tech gadgets and gizmos but a major detriment which that can bring is a mammoth waste of energy. That’s especially the case if you’re someone who likes a bit of flexibility about where you want to cook and eat. If you do want to be able to cook on the move and still be sustainable, then IKEA’s portable, affordable, and extremely energy efficient TILLREDA induction hob is the one for you. You can cook up a storm without leaving the sofa and without burning a massive hole in the ozone layer. If you’re the sort of person who likes to keep their cooking in the kitchen that’s also okay. IKEA’s induction hobs are extremely energy efficient (an induction hob is 50% quicker and more energy-efficient cooking than ceramic or radiant heat) and have a really clean design that’ll go great with your kitchen aesthetic.

This one is pretty obvious but eating less meat is a pretty good way of reducing your carbon footprint. Eating food that’s lower on the food chain (like fruits and vegetables) can help lower your own personal greenhouse gas emission. Choosing a plant-based veggie hot dog over a meaty option is just one of those little changes you can make to help the world. We’ve got plenty of vegetarian recipes on our website to help you out with that as well.

This one sounds easy but making sure that the products you’re decking out your kitchen and dining room with are ethically sourced is important. Sustainability is all about caring for others and the planet – it's about striving to provide a better everyday life for all and working towards a more sustainable future. Buying products that help as many humans as possible is definitely the way forward. Look for products like IKEA’s EGENTID tea and SOARÉ placemat as examples of things you can buy that are made with care for people and the environment.