Swedish home furnishing giant, Al-Futtaim IKEA, today announced the launch of Us & Our Planet: This is How We Live, an inspirational book published in collaboration with global publisher PHAIDON. The book explores one of the biggest challenges of our generation: sustainable living, unveiling how to live more sustainably – well based on the experiences of both ordinary and extraordinary lives.

Us & Our Planet looks at the life at home of twelve everyday people including activists, artists, athletes and gardeners, as well as young families across the globe. From Mexico to Moscow, Bali to Beirut, the book shines a light on the small things one can do to make our world a little better.

Inspired by IKEA’s life at home visits, Us & Our Planet presents case studies of diverse individuals and families around the world. The book also highlights some of the IKEA’s most iconic products born from this approach over the past 70 years.

“At Al-Futtaim IKEA, understanding how people live excites us. We collaborated with PHAIDON to explore how people around the world are tackling one of the most pressing social and environmental challenges we face today as a society – sustainability. In the UAE, the drive towards a greener future has made environmentally friendly lifestyle choices top of mind for residents. With the launch of the book in the region, we aim to inspire and show our customers that together, even small actions can add up to powerful changes in the most important place on earth, our homes. True to our core principles and brand values, the book shares a series of dynamic anecdotes from around the world, that serve as a guiding light to creating happier, healthier and more sustainable life.” said Carla Klumpenaar, GM Marketing, Communications & Interior Design of Al-Futtaim IKEA UAE, Egypt, Qatar, and Oman.

The overall IKEA ambition is to become people and planet positive, and to inspire and enable the many people to live a better everyday life within the boundaries of the planet by 2030. “The IKEA People & Planet Positive 2030 strategy” describes the sustainability agenda and ambition for everyone in the IKEA franchise system and value chain.

“At Al-Futtaim IKEA, we work to develop and offer products, services and home furnishing solutions to inspire and enable people to live a healthier and more sustainable life at home. Our work is focused on five areas where the IKEA offer (both products and services) has a direct impact on people’s health and ability to reduce their environmental footprint at home: energy, air, water, food, and waste.”, Pooja Dhingra, Regional Sustainability Manager, Al-Futtaim IKEA UAE, Egypt, Qatar, and Oman.

IKEA, as a brand and business, is on an exciting journey to interact and inspire people with home furnishing products and solutions with this book being one of many new ways we hope to reach our customers.

Us & Our Planet is structured into six thematic chapters: Time, Space, Food, Rest, Play, and Togetherness. Each chapter features three iconic IKEA designs, two life visits – interviewed and photographed by local writers and photographers – plus one photo essay by a photographer who has interpreted the theme of the chapter. This book wants to inspire the many people and serves as a call to action for each one of us to take small but important steps at home to make our world a little better.