IKEA not a friend of the environment

[virginjohn]

I came across this article about IKEA in the Atlantic a while ago, and I was very surprised because you think IKEA would be the type of company that would be very conscience of environmental issues. Here is the article: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/07/buy-to-last/7513/ and here are the relevant points from it:

The company declines to pay a premium to ensure that all timber is legally harvested, citing costs that would be passed along to the consumer.

IKEA furniture made of particleboard and pine is not meant to last a lifetime; indeed, some professional movers decline to guarantee its safe transport.

the company boasts of illuminating its stores with low-wattage lightbulbs but positions outlets far from city centers, where taxes are low and commuting costs high—the average IKEA customer drives 50 miles round-trip. Cleverly, IKEA transfers transport and energy costs onto consumers, who are then handed the additional burden of assembling their purchases. Designed but not crafted, IKEA bookcases and chairs, like most cheap objects, resist involvement: when they break or malfunction, we tend not to fix them. Rather, we buy new ones. Wig Zamore, a Massachusetts environmental activist who was recently recognized for his work by the Environmental Protection Agency, is working with IKEA and supports some of the company’s regional green initiatives. But as he put it, “IKEA is the least sustainable retailer on the planet.”

 

[twoblues]

and I was very surprised because you think IKEA would be the type of company that would be very conscience of environmental issues.

Ah, but there's the rub. They never come and say are environmentally friendly, they just come across as friendly. They know how to market themselves

 

[Jethro Bodine]

IKEA - Swedish word meaning cheap crap you have to assemble yourself.

 

[virginjohn]

Ah, but there's the rub. They never come and say are environmentally friendly, they just come across as friendly. They know how to market themselves

I know but I am talking about the public image of the company. As the article says IKEA's public image is "the anti-Wal-Mart: a company where value and good values coexist".