[Green Thursdays] How Sustainable is IKEA?

IKEA just released its yearly Sustainability Report today, and while it boasts that the company "reduces CO2" and no longer sells incandescent lights, consumers need to read these sorts of corporate marketing materials with a very large grain of salt. Or enough grains of salt to season beef stew.

The fact of the matter is that if you want cheap things, there is a trade-off. Of course, I recognize that this is coming from the girl who lusts after platform shoes but refuses to pay full retail. Everything in moderation, I say (instead of owning the 60 pairs I want, I have about 6).

But IKEA cannot possibly provide all of the furniture that it provides consumers with for such a low price without some societal trade-off. For instance, it harvests its wood in China and Russia, and we have all heard about the atrocities that happen at overseas manufacturers when low-cost is concerned. IKEA claims to have "forest patrollers", but they only have about six of these people for the entire company. Can you imagine six people overseeing all of the crap that gets produced at all of the manufacturing locations world-wide? You can read more about this topic in the book Cheap by Ellen Ruppel Shell, or in some articles by her in The Atlantic.

The further problem with IKEA, and I would say this is probably the most threatening to the environment and the idea of sustainability, is the mindset that the store instills in us. It encourages a throw-away culture. What, your BJURSTA kitchen table just snapped in half? Throw it in the dumpster, and buy another one. I mean, you only paid $200 for it anyway. Maybe you'll even upgrade to a more expensive IKEA model that will last all of five years, instead of two (unless you live in a frat house. Then I give all IKEA furniture a six-month lifespan).

Furthermore, I don't know if you've noticed, but IKEAs never seem to be located near your house. There's an explanation for that: IKEA puts its stores in places where property taxes are low, and the corporation therefore doesn't have to pay as much in taxes back to the community. But a trip to IKEA is usually a day- or half-day-long occassion. In college, I once drove an hour and a half in LA traffic to buy some barstools from the IKEA in Burbank. And how much did I waste in gas and time? I don't know if I could put a number on it. But I could have picked up some barstools from a neighbor on Craigslist or a local garage sale.

All I'm saying is that we need to hold IKEA's self-declaration as a sustainable corporation up for scrutiny. Don't believe everything you hear, and don't expect their couches to be comfortable either.