Ikea's 'ScrapsBook' Helps You Cut Down on Kitchen Waste

Ikea Canada puts sustainability on the front burner with a free cookbook that contains 50 recipes using kitchen scraps as ingredients.

Developed with top chefs including Adrian Forte, Craig Wong and Trevor Bird, the “Ikea ScrapsBook” explains how to blend corn husks into a chicken polenta dinner and flavor moist, chocolaty cakes with banana peels.

Bruised apple cores, fruit rinds, old beans, carrot ends and overripe veggies—all safe to eat, like 63 percent of our daily food detritus—feature in other tasty dishes, as you’ll see in this project video:

The “ScrapsBook” concept began simmering a few months back during shoots for Ikea’s kitchen ballet commercial, in which a pirouetting couple used leftovers to create a great meal.

“We wanted to find a way to take that message of sustainability and turn it into something that was easily accessible, and that people could use in their own homes,” says Joel Holtby, partner and creative director at Rethink, which helped craft both the ballet ad and “ScrapsBook.”

“Everyone is cooking at home more throughout the pandemic, but household food waste is a serious problem,” Holtby says. “There’s so much we throw away without even thinking about it, and even though many people are aware there’s a problem, they don’t necessarily know how to begin solving it. A lot of food waste comes down to people not realizing that they can actually make something delicious from that ugly carrot top or banana peel.”

Available primarily as a free, copiously illustrated download, the 214-page “ScrapsBook” also exists IRL, with Ikea offering 300 sustainably produced copies to members of its loyalty program.

“Like any well-loved cookbook it’s something we hope people will turn to time and time again for inspiration,” says Johanna Andrén, marketing lead at Ikea Canada. “By each of us taking small steps, together we can make a big impact in our homes, communities and our planet.”

Ikea will support the project with a series of cooking tutorials on Instagram Live, hosted by contributing chefs. (Or, if you’re feeling wasted from pandemic kitchen fatigue, you can just order out. There’s a “Don’t Cookbook” from PostMates for that.)

In addition to “ScrapsBook,” Ikea has whipped up several innovative initiatives of late, including a Snapchat-based augmented reality “Escape Room” gaming experience to showcase and sell furniture designed to bust clutter. “With so many Americans stuck at home during the pandemic, the need for organization has never been greater,” explains Della Mathew, executive creative director at Ogilvy New York, which helped develop that campaign.

And with podcasts of all sorts exploding in popularity, Ikea and Ogilvy just turned the retailer’s 2021 catalog into a four-hour audio extravaganza:

“A few years ago, Ikea started talking about reducing catalog use for sustainability reasons and ways to shift how that money was spent,” Matthew tells MediaPost. “And with the pandemic, they are burning through their podcasts. So, we thought this would be a tongue-in-cheek, personalized way to see Ikea. You can close your eyes and imagine the room [voiceover artist Jasmin Richardson] describes.”

CREDITS

Title: The ScrapsBook
Client: IKEA
CCO: Aaron Starkman
Executive Creative Director: Mike Dubrick 
Creative Director:  Joel Holtby, Jake Lim
Art Director: Dorota Pankowska
Writer: Justin Santelli
FR Writer: Karine Doucet, Isabelle Lamarre and Élise Guillemette
Proofreader: Camille Desrochers (FR), Davina Haisell (EN)
Designer: Erin Struble
Strategist: Shereen Ladha, Stacy Ross
Head of Strategy: Sean McDonald
Producer: Narine Artinian, Spencer Houghton 
Production Artist: Brad Kumar    
Printer: Lowe Martin Group
Production House: Fuze Reps
Production House Producer: Nicole Gomez
Photographer: Maya Visnyei
Photography Assistant: Rachel Cicoria, Jasmine DeBoer
 
Photo Retoucher: Lisa Hordyk 
Photography Producer: Sara Melvin
Food Stylist: Claudia Bianchi
Assistant Food Stylist: Mia Bachmaier 
Prop Stylist: Catherine Doherty
Assistant Props Stylist: Lindsey Clarke
Post Production House: R+D Productions
Editor: Leigh O’Neill 
Post Production Producer: Todd Harrison, Megan O’Connor 
Transfer & On-Line: Emmett Maloney
Audio House: Vapor Music
Audio Engineer: Art Mullin
Music Director: Ted Rosnik
Audio Producer: Kat Stewart
Date of First Appearance: March 17, 2021

Account Services: 
Sarah Riedlinger, Group Account Director
Daniel Riggi, Account Director
Catherine Blouin-Mainville, Account Director (FR)
Megan Christopher, Account Manager
Melissa Luk, Account Manager
Gabrielle Bergeron, Account Manager (FR)

Client: 
Johanna Andren, Chief Marketing Officer 
Lena Dukic, Director of Brand Marketing
Jordan Sequeira, Marketing Communications Specialist
Stephanie Smith, Catalogue & Brochures Manager
Caroline Hayes, Integrated Media Leader
Maja Boricevic, Communications Specialist
Jennifer Bauer, Country Integrated Media Leader

Other Credits:

Media: Carat
Karen Hrstic, VP – Group Account Director
Tracey Cronin, Account Director
Vanessa Coutinho, Associate Account Director
Monalyn Quelnat, Media Planner
Crystal Kim, Media Coordinator

CRM: Wunderman Thompson

Chefs: 
Adrian Forte
Trevor Bird
David Gunawan
Fisun Ercan
Lindsay-Jean Hard
Jason Sheardown
Craig Wong
Justin Cournoyer
Andrea Carlson
Christa Bruneau-Guenther