We are now looking for 2 students that wants to write their Master thesis at IKEA Range & Supply from January to June 2021.

IKEA is committed to become climate positive by 2030 by reducing more greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) than the IKEA value chain emits, while growing the IKEA business. To reach this IKEA seeks to account for and improve the contribution of land related GHG emissions and removals.
We invite you to explore with us the potential of carbon stored in land, plants and products.
These natural climate solutions will play a vital role in the area of forestry and agricultural land use and build an important corner stone on our journey to become climate positive. 

IKEA is seeking 2 Master’s thesis students to answer four research questions:
1)    How big are carbon removals & emissions related to land use & land use change of the materials in the IKEA products?
2)    Where are the gaps between IKEA data and methodological (e.g. IPCC) data requirements? 
3)    What kind of sourcing and land use data would be needed for more accurate climate performance & decisions?
4)    How would different sourcing decisions affect the quantified removals & emissions?
The scope of the analysis will be restricted to three raw material groups where IKEA has good traceability data and that make up a significant share of IKEA’s land footprint: 1) Pine in the Northern Hemisphere, 2) Short rotation Acacia in Vietnam, and 3) Cotton .

The deliverables are:
-    An excel tool is developed that quantifies carbon sequestration and emission from the three raw materials for the research regions identified above. 
-    A report is prepared that summarises gaps between available IKEA sourcing data as well as publicly available data and the data requirements of the IPCC LULUCF methodology.
-    A scenario analysis is prepared that highlights the impact in terms of carbon removals and emissions of different purchase decisions in terms of sourcing regions and raw materials 

The purpose is to enable a facts-based approach to climate goal setting by analysing the climate footprint of our land based raw material sourcing. 

One student should have a background in forestry and one student’s background should be in agriculture. Both students should have a passion for sustainability and climate-related topics.
The students should have strong skills in quantitative analysis and fun working with large databases and spatial data. GIS knowledge and excellent Excel skills as well as experience with the IPCC LULUCF, GHG Protocol and LCA methodologies are an advantage.
The students must have English fluency. 

For any questions about the role please contact [email protected] or [email protected] who will be the supervisors. If you have any questions regarding the recruitment process please contact [email protected]. 
You must clearly state your available start date and a short description of how this assignment fits into your degree programme. 

We are looking forward to your application! Please submit both your CV and motivational letter in English latest 29/12 2020. 

Please note:
To take part of the Thesis work, you have to be enrolled in a Thesis course provided at university level/Thesis agreement with the university.