With over 3,500 stores across 50 countries, JYSK has made a name for itself in homes worldwide—thanks to its great Scandinavian offers in the areas of sleeping and living. Today, it’s making waves differently. Through its sustainability strategy, “A Great Offer for Generations”, JYSK is proving that environmental due diligence isn’t just for the few; it’s essential for businesses of all sizes. Aware that the way it acts has an impact on the environment, JYSK is using the amfori Business Environmental Performance Initiative (amfori BEPI) to understand and mitigate risks to its business and reputation, improving its performance across its global supply chain.
The signing of the Science-Based Targets initiative was a decisive step that fostered JYSK to get a better understanding of its environmental due diligence across its supply chain. Beyond the initial focus on reducing its carbon footprint, JYSK was determined to monitor and make improvements in other environmental aspects.
“We began using amfori BEPI in 2020. Initially, our approach was gradual, with a strong focus on studying the available possibilities. A turning point came when amfori BEPI was integrated into the amfori Sustainability Platform—this is when we started setting concrete targets. At first, we explored the available tools through environmental risk assessments. Since then, we’ve progressed to requiring audits for all factories, including those located in low-risk countries. As of now, approximately 90% of our factories are covered by audits,” Søren Lip ter Beek, Compliance Manager at JYSK states.
JYSK has identified 5 focus areas they take into consideration for their business:
- Climate action
- Responsible value chain
- Trusted quality products
- Attractive and inclusive workplace
- Data transparency
These focus areas extend beyond the scope of amfori BEPI and also cover performance areas addressed by other amfori solutions, such as amfori BSCI, which JYSK also uses. With amfori BEPI, JYSK focuses on the 8 environmental performance areas (EPAs) the system measures to meet the objectives set for its focus areas. These environmental performance areas include:
- Environmental Management System
- Energy & Climate
- Water & Effluents
- Emissions to Air
- Waste
- Chemicals
- Biodiversity
- Nuisances
A commitment to suppliers
It’s one thing to take a leap in environmental due diligence, it’s another one to manage that change. The approach must be rethought to align with various areas of business. In JYSK’s case, the next step after identifying concrete targets was to ensure its suppliers aligned with these new principles.
The Compliance Manager explains: “We have a large supplier base, and our approach typically begins with a broad brush: engaging a wide group of suppliers at once. However, before taking such steps, the fundamentals must be in place. For us, this means ensuring that all suppliers in countries with auditing capacity have completed their amfori BEPI audits—a decision we made in 2024.
At this point, we have gathered a sufficient number of audits to start analysing the results. The path forward comes with a number of questions we must answer: Should we set targets based on specific countries or focus on particular industries? Which areas are underperforming and need the most improvement? What issues are most material to us? We’re at a key stage where strategic decisions will be made, based on verified & concrete data.”
Challenges on the road and solutions provided by amfori
Despite the benefits ahead, managing environmental risks across global supply chains is inherently challenging. Between local legislation requirements and the diversity of systems used by suppliers, businesses often lack the right tools to measure, assess and monitor environmental risks in their supply chain.
This lack of transparency and clear insights into its suppliers’ environmental practices was one of the challenges JYSK faced. The team realised that it could be difficult for suppliers to accurately complete risk assessments, hence the analysis of verified results through audits. Once the audits are completed, tracking improvements will be easier and more accurate.
To comply with legislation in Europe and Germany in particular, JYSK requires its suppliers to fill in the Environmental Due Diligence Questionnaire, to demonstrate compliance with the German Supply Chain Act.
The nature of JYSK’s engagement with its suppliers significantly influences its ability to manage environmental risks.
To date, the most valuable use of the amfori BEPI system for JYSK has been gathering data through risk assessments, environmental monitoring and amfori Insights and gaining an overview of supplier performance across different EPAs.
Future outlooks
JYSK will continue to work with amfori to expand the use of amfori BEPI into new regions. “Our goal is to make all factories conduct an amfori BEPI audit, regardless of their location, which is why we continuously work together with amfori on expanding auditing capacity to the few countries without auditors” Søren notes.
As carbon footprint remains a key focus of the company’s environmental due diligence journey, the team will make further efforts to improve data quality. They will rely on amfori BEPI to transform material activity data into specific data related to suppliers.
“We know there’s a huge impact on emissions. If we can see what our suppliers are actually doing—how energy-efficient their machines are, whether there are solar panels on their roof, what the grid emissions are in their area, and so on- we could limit that impact.
Beyond carbon footprint, we’ll of course also focus on other Environmental Performance Areas. As said above, this will mean setting the direction and targets for those areas,” Søren Lip ter Beek concludes.
JYSK’s responses have been edited for brevity.