AlterNet: IKEA: Who Says Big Retail Can't Be Good for the Environment?

[marmar]

IKEA: Who Says Big Retail Can't Be Good for the Environment?

By David Roberts, Grist Magazine. Posted March 1, 2007.



IKEA's environmental policies and ambitious future plans put U.S. retailers to shame.

This article is reprinted by permission from Grist. For more environmental news and humor sign up for Grist's free email service.

Last week, IKEA U.S. announced a "bag the plastic bag" initiative: the retailer will charge a nickel for plastic bags to discourage their use, donating all revenue to the nonprofit conservation group American Forests. The store will also let shoppers walk away with one of its iconic reusable blue bags for 59 cents.

Pleasant enough news, but it struck me as somewhat cosmetic. Hadn't I heard that IKEA's commitment to sustainability went much further than this?

A little poking around on the IKEA website uncovered a set of practices that puts every big U.S. retailer to shame. From the wood in its products to the factory conditions of its suppliers to the energy efficiency of its distribution network, IKEA has outlined tough, progressive standards almost unheard of in the U.S. Now it's working to move all its stores to completely renewable energy.

Why not brag about that stuff instead of the bags? I contacted IKEA's head of social and environmental responsibility, Thomas Bergmark, at the company's headquarters in Sweden to find out the details behind this unassuming approach. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/48578/

[Sherman A1]

1. This is super!

Hopefully more and more will follow....

[MrPrax]

2. "IKEA's commitment to sustainability"

They could start here:

Preservationists blast IKEA - Swedish giant is blamed for losing historic documents

02/16/2007

Irreplaceable records charting the rise of a Brooklyn shipyard to a position of national dominance have been lost forever, vanquished to the trash heap by Swedish home furnishings giant IKEA.

Even as the skeleton of IKEA’s superstore is beginning to take shape along Red Hook’s waterfront, preservationists still worry about the cost of its construction.

According to the blog Gowanus Lounge, IKEA destroyed the shipyard records despite requests from Todd Shipyard, the onetime owner, that they be preserved.

The records covered the period from the foundation of Todd to its growth as the largest shipyard company in the country, according to the blog.

Courier-Life

I've never bought a thing from IKEA that could fit into a 'reusable' bag?

I would much prefer that this trans-national company that contracts in well-over 30 countries in the world, once owned by the world's richest man, would just stay away from Third World wood sources like rain forests.

But that IS too much to ask these corporate animals that insist on shitting where they eat...

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? ...

[phantom power]

3. If they gave up 3rd-world wood, it would be the end of their business model.

No more super-cheap furniture to sell.

But then, that's your point. All our resources are currently underpriced by virtue of being obtained unsustainably.