We have all been to IKEA at least once right? I mean who doesn’t get fascinated with the huge variety of products and of course, the delicious food available at their outlet. But did you know that IKEA is part of many different efforts aimed at conserving the environment in many parts of the world? Being the world’s largest furniture retailer, it is both heartening and impressive to know that IKEA realizes the importance of playing its part in environmental conservation efforts.
Locally, IKEA is involved in a number of projects to save the environment.
1. Eliminating The Use Of Disposable Plastic Bags
IKEA recognized that Singaporeans use a staggering 2.5 billion plastic bags per year and these will eventually end up in oceans and forests, where they will kill wildlife and pollute the environment. Hence, they eliminated disposable plastic bags from their stores since March 2013. IKEA even reduced the prices of their reusable bags in order to encourage people to make the switch. Out of the cost savings from eliminating disposable plastic bags, $200 000 was pledged to WWF Singapore to fund its eco-education programmes.
2. Earth Hour
IKEA switched off the facade and external lights during Earth Hour and opened their restaurants for customers to have dinner. The money collected during the event was given to WWF Singapore to support their conservation works. Initiatives like this help promote awareness of Earth Hour and encourage people to adopt the habit of switching off unwanted appliances and help conserve the Earth’s limited resources.
3. Recycling Of Christmas Trees
IKEA donated $5 to Garden City Fund’s Plant-A-Tree programme for every IKEA Christmas tree brought back, to support their environmental efforts. The trees were recycled into mulch, giving it a new purpose as compared to just throwing it away.
4. Waste Management
IKEA ensures that their waste streams are managed responsibly. They send out all possible factions for recycling and even send waste oil from restaurants to Alpha Biofuels so that they can be recycled into biodiesel. Hence, even waste does not go to waste in IKEA!
5. Education and promoting awareness
IKEA has a page on it’s website that educates users and provides solutions to how they can save energy, save water, manage waste and recycle at home. Many of IKEA’s products help promote eco-friendly behaviour. This would mean that more Singaporeans might start adopting environmentally friendly measures at home.
Besides these local initiatives, IKEA plays its part in conserving the environment in many other ways in other parts of the world to ensure that it’s use of raw materials are as sustainable as possible.
1. Forestry
Since wood is an important raw material for IKEA, it ensures that it meets the IKEA Forestry standards. This means that the wood cannot be harvested from forests illegally, from uncertified Intact Natural Forests or other geographically identified High Conservation Value Forests or natural forests in the tropical and sub-tropical regions being converted to plantations or nonforest use. Hence, wood is from sustainable sources.
2. Cotton
Cotton is another important raw material for IKEA, so IKEA is increasing the availability of sustainable cotton by encouraging cotton farmers to introduce more sustainable farming practices. . The cotton farmers have managed to halve water consumption and chemical pesticide use, while the use of fertilizers has dropped by 30%. That’s better for water, air, plants, bugs, birds, fish and mammals – including people.
3. Climate
IKEA wants to reduce its carbon footprint from all aspects of its value chain. One example of how this is done is through its packaging methods. IKEA packs its products into flat cardboard packaging so that more items can be stacked and shipped at a go. This means less trips and hence less carbon emissions. Another notable fact is that the cardboard used for packaging is made out of recyclable material and requires minimal raw materials.
These are only some of the efforts by IKEA and there are still a lot more that I have not mentioned in this post. IKEA’s efforts are largely successful in helping to conserve the environment and this is very commendable. I personally feel impressed by all the environmental conservation efforts by IKEA and how sometimes even the smallest changes can lead to less negative impact on the environment.