China, Ikea’s fastest-growing market, has promised to implement more policies to make sustainability a part of the economy. How will that fit into your plans for your China business, and what are your own plans for sustainability in China? According to the RE100 Website, Ikea ran 5 pilot projects in China to study how you can support both energy efficiency projects and renewable energy installation with your suppliers.
“Ikea is a large international retailer, and we want to have a positive impact on people and the planet where ever we are present. This includes investing in renewable energy where possible for our operations in Asia. (Steve Howard, chief sustainability officer, Ikea)
In China, we work with our suppliers in three areas – energy efficiency, water efficiency, and sustainability improvements. Supplier Goes Renewable is the name of the energy efficiency project where a number of suppliers participate. Within water efficiency, we work together with other brands within the Sweden Textile Water Initiative Projects. This focuses on water issues in the supply chains of Swedish textile and leather companies – from thread and raw hide to finished product – with the aim of contributing to wiser water management.
We also use the so-called Sustainability Score Card for each supplier. We track improvements for instance in raw material utilization, waste management, energy efficiency, water efficiency, and score each supplier’s progress.
Our retail operations in China are among our fastest-expanding, opening three new stores a year. This presents a great opportunity for us to implement the Ikea Group People & Planet Positive sustainability strategy in all stages of store projects. Energy efficiency and renewable energy investments have become standard from early layout planning, and our existing stores take great actions to move forward, too.
Comparing with financial year 2010, the country’s energy efficiency improved by more than 20 per cent by the end of financial year 2014. Site-generated renewable energy has been widely used in the Chinese stores, with sources being geothermal heating installation, PV installation, and solar water heating system. The energy is used for lighting and heating stores, and the hot water goes to co-worker showers and dishwashing in the kitchen. This means a reduction of thousands of tonnes of [[CO2]] emissions from our operations.
You have said that Ikea is “still just warming up” in terms of the company’s sustainability efforts. What is the company’s ultimate dream in sustainability?
Customers should be able to buy a product that is sustainable at no extra cost, and ideally that product should enable them to live more sustainably at home. LEDs, the next best thing to daylight, are a great example. They use 85 per cent less energy and last 20 times longer than traditional incandescent bulbs. The whole Ikea lighting range will convert to LED technology in September 2015.
At IkeaA our vision is to create a better everyday life for people. Our business idea supports this vision by offering a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them. We believe that sustainability, and sustainable products, should be available to many, and not just exclusive to a few.
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