IKEA: using green credentials for good publicity?

• Apr. 6 by Lucas Coe (1)

IKEA have come under increasing criticism from environmental agencies in the UK and abroad, because of glaring failings and hypocrisy in their green credentials.

The criticism includes IKEA’s West Midlands’ store, located on the outskirts of Wednesbury via the M6:

‘When we are planning a new IKEA store, the issue of good public transport links is an important consideration. And we are working to improve access to our existing stores by bus or train.’

This is the commitment IKEA have published on their website.

However, for the vast majority of customers who visit IKEA Wednesbury, driving is something of a necessity.

Not only is the store’s location away from heavily populated areas but transporting large furniture back home is very impractical on public transport – perhaps something that IKEA forgets to mention.

In addition, IKEA’s involvement in WWF’s and the Earth Hour campaign has come under scrutiny.  

Both IKEA and WWF have shown support for each other on their respective websites, with IKEA pledging to support Earth Hour.

In theory, this would mean all IKEA stores across the world should have turned off their lights on Saturday 28^th March, at 8pm.

However, all UK stores reduced in store lighting to the absolute minimum, without compromising customer and staff safety.

As pointed out on a Guardian blog, using energy efficiently is an action that arguably should be done everyday in IKEA stores, if their commitment to the environment statement is to be believed:

‘Climate change is happening now, which is why we at the IKEA Group are determined to play a part in preventing it by improving our overall energy efficiency and reducing our emissions of greenhouse gases.’

IKEA’s criticism does not stop there.

The Environment Investigation Agency published a report on illegal timber logging.

Wall-Mart, Armstrong and IKEA were accused of using huge proportions of timber product imports and logs in Russia and China.

This led to the Russian Natural Resource Minister commenting in 2007:

‘The impression you get there is that illegal logging has become an everyday economic affair and common practice, everybody sees it and nobody does anything.’