For a long period of its operation in the market, IKEA has been striving for decreasing its impact on the environment and increasing its contribution to a sustainable society and environment. The company has taken many efforts and invested much time and money into the development of practices that can allow achieving such goals and making the products safe both for consumers and nature, in general. On the one hand, such efforts were taken by the company to meet all the regulatory requirements and be able to sustain its operation in the market without facing any fines and penalties or losing consumer loyalty and trust. On the other hand, they are the reflection of the IKEA management’s desire to sustain a healthy society and environment by showing an example of safe corporate activity. Therefore, the purpose of the IKEA sustainability report is to show the outcome of its corporate actions that were taken to meet the goals and provide stakeholders with information on the company’s current achievements. In other words, it may be suggested that it is used as evidence of the fact that IKEA declares that the company is willing to contribute to the development of a sustainable environment and society. Also, it demonstrates that the company implements its plan and makes actual steps toward the achievement of its goals.

Current Practices

The operation of IKEA is regulated by two types of environmental regulations. On the one hand, there are legal requirements that consider what types of natural resources, particularly wood, may be used in the process of production. On the other hand, there are regulations regarding the content of hazardous substances in the already manufactured products, for example, formaldehyde and heavy metals.

To assess compliance with the environmental/sustainability regulations, it was possible to apply two approaches. First, in order to check the requirements regarding the use of resources, suppliers and manufacturers could have been required to provide documentation on what type of wood they used and where it came from. Second, in order to assess the content of hazardous substances, regular samples from every batch could have been taken and analyzed by third-party laboratories with the view to ensuring independent results.

For the purpose of information collection and analysis, IKEA applied the strictest requirements to every market, in which it operated. Also, instead of analyzing the actual batches, the company evaluated the methods used in the process of manufacturing.

Currently used purchasing strategies include cooperation with suppliers that get materials from replanting forests and the ones that are well-managed. This way, IKEA eliminated the threat of using insecure and hazardous materials in its products.

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Targets for Improvements

The staff working for IKEA was the primary target for improvement under the newly adopted strategy. The company decided to utilize the approach known as train-the-trainers. According to it, IKEA selected the key management personnel from individual departments and suppliers and sent them for training that had lasted for several days. Afterward, these employees would return to train other people in the company and work on providing environmental and sustainability training. Eventually, stakeholders, including consumers, we’re also consulted concerning IKEA recycling procedures and the assistance of the staff in answering their questions.

To be able to implement its sustainability and environmental targets, the company accessed certain external sources of information. First of all, IKEA collected the data on regulations in different markets and set the strictest ones, as well as the basic criteria, for each of its products. Secondly, the company collected the information on the materials used by suppliers and manufacturers, with which it cooperated, to ensure their safety for human health.

In 2008, IKEA set efficiency targets to increase the on-site recycling in its stores, decrease the exhaust pollution due to insufficient logistics, eliminate contents of formaldehyde and heavy metals in the products, lower the use of PVH, make the products more efficient in terms of space used required for transportation, and use less electricity in stores in kWh. These goals were planned to be achieved by 50-80%. However, recently, in 2016, they were set to be met completely, while the adverse impact was to reach zero.

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Performance Improvement Strategies

To achieve efficiency targets, IKEA made a decision to resource to external help. T