Circular materials and flows

Circular solutions and conserving nature’s resources benefit both the environment and the climate. That is why we continually review how we can optimise the use of materials and other resources so that we benefit fully from them.

Long-lasting kitchens

We want our kitchens to be long-lasting. Accordingly, we only manufacture kitchens of high quality and with long guarantee periods. At the same time, our experience is that tastes change and for this reason, we want to enable our customers to upgrade and renew their kitchens without needing to replace their entire kitchen.

One example is our Rehome initiative that is now being tested in our UK market under the Magnet Retail brand. Customers are offered a free valuation of their old kitchen and the option of selling it to the second-hand market via our partnership with UK company Rehome, or – if the furnishings are too worn – help with dismantling the kitchen and optimal recycling of the materials.

We also continue our circular offering RE:NEW in the Swedish market and have also rolled out the concept for launch in our markets in Denmark and Norway. RE:NEW offers customers solutions to update their kitchens and give them new life, for example, with new doors and handles. Replacing cabinet doors rather than the entire cabinet framework saves energy and material.

Wood from sustainable forestry

Wood is the main component of our products. Wood is renewable, recyclable and durable. Being a sustainable choice requires that it comes from responsible forestry. All our wood comes from sustainable sources, additionally 96% origins from certified source. Now we want to increase this share even further, through our new sustainability strategy.

Circular material

Most of our incoming wood consists of board material, with an average of approximately 40% recycled wood in the form of by-products and recycled material. This way, waste wood from sawmills and forestry as well as from worn-out furniture and wood products is upgraded into new material. We constantly try to find new ways of increasing the proportion of recycled material in our wood products, but also to increase the amount of recycled materials in other input products, such as metal and plastic. We also work to reduce the waste from our own production and increase circular flows. During the year 61% of our waste wood went to new products.

Cleaner material flows

We strive towards cleaner flows of materials by reducing our use of classified chemicals. As part of these efforts we work systematically and preventively according to the EU REACH regulations on chemical substances. Emissions of formaldehyde occur naturally in wood, at low levels, but are also linked to binding agents, for example, in wood-based boards. Nobia uses only board materials that are well within the limits according to industry standards (E1), and today we offer products with lower amounts of formaldehyde (half E1) in several markets.

Paint and solvents

Solvents are mainly used in surface treatment and for cleaning paint finishes. An aspect of the work to reduce the use of solvents is to increase the proportion of water-based and UV-cured paints and to minimise the number of changes of production equipment, which both reduces the number of cleaning steps and increases productivity. New surface treatment equipment for darker colours enables us to meet our customers' higher demand for darker colours, while the kitchens also meet the strict environmental and quality requirements.

All production facilities work systematically to reduce its environmental impact. In total, 13 out of 14 facilities are certified under ISO 14001 standard for environmental management, the remaining one is in process.