Ultra-Efficient IKEA Has More in Store
by Justin Thomas, Virginia on 07.24.06
To some, IKEA is the Wal-Mart of the furniture world, a big-box, buy-in-bulk retailer wrapped in the bright blue and yellow of the Swedish flag. To others, the company named in an acronym after its founder Ingvar Kamprad and his childhood home and hometown Elmtaryd in Agunnaryd, is a paragon of sustainability. The paradox is in part due to IKEA's strategy of pursuing environmental and social initiatives with hardly a thought to communicating either goals or results to the public. The company's first attempt at reporting, in 2003, followed over a decade of work on environmental actions, such as phasing out PVC (polyvinyl chloride), radically simplifying packaging, and putting together a strict environmental and social code of conduct for suppliers.
But IKEA’s growing global presence -- 234 stores in 34 countries, 2005 sales of over $18 billion -- seems to have finally awakened the Swedish giant to the demands faced by multinational companies.
"We would present it this way: A part of Swedish culture is to be humble, and that’s also part of our culture -- not putting ourselves on a pedestal or patting ourselves on the back," says corporate social responsibility manager John Zurcher. "But we have also recently realized that many companies are much more transparent and visible about what they do, and we need to be more visible too. In the U.S., we have had a lot of discussion about the fact that in an IKEA store you really don’t get any communication about what we are doing."
Like Wal-Mart, IKEA is a company obsessed with low prices. Founder Kamprad is a notorious cost-cutter, and current CEO Anders Dalvig is noted for his forays to global factories to advise the locals on efficiency. In addition, IKEA’s pride is its famous “flat packs” of boards customers are expected to take home and assemble into the same functional bookshelves and counters featured in stores.
But the company has also adopted the motto “Low price — but not at any price,” a credo reflected in ambitious goals recently adopted for 2006–2009.
IKEA’s U.S. locations aim to reclaim 90 percent of store waste by the end of 2009 (the stores currently average 67 percent). All new stores need to be built to a certified green building standard. Organic goods — starting with coffee, strawberry jam, blue cheese, tomato sauce, and schnapps, the Swedish aquavit — will be phased-in to both IKEA’s restaurants and its “Swede” shops. In the same three-year goal period, the company plans to encourage 10 percent of its customers around the world to travel to its stores using public transport.
:: Read more at Sustainable Industries. See also this previous article about Ikea's Environmental And Social Reports.
Given that most IKEAs are out in suburbs and require cars to get to (it's a bit hard to take flatpack furniture on the bus), might I suggest a) free delivery and b) that IKEA sponsor their own transit wherever possible, ranging from shuttle buses all the way up to light rail lines, done as part of a public-private partnership. A tramline to IKEA Montreal would go through a huge industrial park and have lots of riders, connecting with an intermodal stop to Montreal's Metro. A similar line could run from the Longueuil metro on the south shore through several neighborhoods and office parks, to the Boucherville store. Just sayin'.
Ikea Coquitlam (in BC) is having a "Transit Fare Discount Month" for all of July. They are also relatively close to SkyTrain, our above-ground subway.
http://tinyurl.com/ntxp8
http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/IkeaNearYouView?storeId=3&langId=-15&catalogId=10103&StoreName=coquitlam
They are also hosting a weekly farmer's market to support local economy.
Good stuff!
Etobicoke Ikea (in Toronto) runs a free shuttle to Kipling subway station.
North York Ikea is on the newest chunk of TTC Subway line - there's a walk to the station, but it's not far.
Burlington Ikea does have a bus stop near(ish) that is well serviced and Burlington Transit does connect to both Hamilton Transit (HSR) and Oakville Transit at either extreme of the city, yet still doesn't have useful bike parking and they just about have a snit if you lock up to the anti-car bollards. I've tried to park the train (tandem bike, trail-a-bike and trailer) there and not had much luck -- they do have parking for about 500 SUVs though.
And if Ikea Canada happens to be reading, get Burlington Transit to loop through the Burlington Ikea parking lot, lots of people use the transit stop out on Plains and hate walking :)
The one in BC seems to have the right idea. I like the idea of the farmer's market; i suspect as peak oil starts to hit our agribusinesses and 5000-mile supply lines pretty much *every* mall will have to be a farmer's market, but anyway ;)
What bugs me about some Ikeas is that they are part of "drive-in" power centres, like the one in Boucherville - a horrendous waste of space, a maze of parking lots, sprawl in miniature. I wish they'd bite the bullet and buy some retail space downtown for once. Surely they could leverage their profits to help revitalize downtown cores?