7 minute read
Green Retail
In the third of our four-part series, we take a look at a number of furniture retailers and what they are doing in terms of sustainability. Next up, IKEA, Dreams and Carpetright.
The topic of sustainability is not anything new but its importance is ever relevant and continues to grow. You may have seen a greater choice of sustainability-led products within the furniture industry over the past few years, from bottle-filled mattresses to fully recycled components at the core of new products. This is fantastic and long may it continue. Alongside product innovations, businesses are also adapting new ways of working to make their operations greener. In the third instalment of our series, we explore what some of the bigger retailers are doing in this area as we focus on IKEA, Dreams and Carpetright.
IKEA
When it comes to the subject of sustainability, Swedish giants IKEA do not shy away from publishing their achievements, targets and methods. Sustainability is an integrated part of the IKEA business and is led from a holistic perspective with an aligned overall direction. Each IKEA business within the IKEA franchise system contributes to the total IKEA sustainability agenda, which is set and governed by the Strategic Sustainability Council. Key sustainability objectives are monitored and reported on in totality in the IKEA Sustainability Report. Taking a closer look at its most recent report for the financial year of 2021, which was released at the beginning of this year, there are plenty of goals IKEA is striving towards as part of its IKEA 2030 commitments. This mini-report focuses on some of them. Last year, IKEA’s total climate footprint decreased by 1.6 million tonnes of CO2 compared to baseline FY16, a reduction of 5.8%, while IKEA sales surpassed previous highs. This is mainly due to a more energy-efficient IKEA range and more renewable energy in production, with the latter reaching 100% renewable electricity in 10 additional IKEA markets. Other key achievements include a forest positive agenda for 2030, with the aim to enhance biodiversity, support livelihoods and mitigate climate change. More than 99% of the wood used is now FSC certified or recycled wood.
IKEA also introduced SOLHETTA LED bulbs to replace other LED bulbs products. These last about 25,000 hours and are, on average 35% more energy efficient than previous IKEA LED bulbs. The business launched an air purifier to generate cleaner energy, while also launching an interactive online circular design tool based on learnings from the assessment of 9,500 products in the IKEA range. On products, IKEA has tried to make it easier to prolong product life too, offering more than 18 million spare parts (FY20: 14 million), as well as launching an online ordering solution globally.
During the period, 73% of the material sourced for the IKEA range was renewable or recycled, with the company reaching 56% renewable and 17% recycled materials. IKEA has also started phasing out plastic from consumer packaging solutions. The phase-out will happen in steps, starting with all new range by 2025, and running range by 2028. Currently, less than 10% of the total volume of packaging material used annually by IKEA consists of plastics. Jon Abrahamsson Ring, CEO, Inter IKEA Group, concluded: “We continue the work to make our offer more sustainable and affordable. We are phasing out less sustainable products and materials and are introducing new options. One good example is replacing virgin polyester with recycled polyester, resulting in a reduced climate footprint from polyester use by 45% in FY21.”
IKEA
DREAMS
National beds retailer Dreams commitment to sustainability focuses around recycling, energy consumption and its product offer. On recycling, Dreams is committed to supporting the environment and actively promotes its recycling service to customers so they can responsibly dispose of their old mattress when their new one arrives, with 1 in 5 of customers taking advantage of its service. In 2022 alone, Dreams helped customers to recycle 127,063 mattresses, while over 1.5 million items, including bed bases and frames, have been recycled since its
customer take back program started in 2014. Furthermore, all waste is tracked, collected and reported by its recycling and waste management partner, Circom. This means that no waste goes to landfill. Of all the waste Circom collected from Dreams in 2022, 52% went to energy recovery and 48% was recycled.
Since June 2021, 100% of the energy used across all of Dreams’ 208 stores and 12 sites is from renewable electricity. As for vehicles, which cover 4.5 million miles a year, the company utilises its route planning tool to optimise delivery schedules, reduces the number of miles and increase the number of customer drops per van. Combined with its in-cab telemetry, which measures how safe and efficient its drivers are, this results in more efficient route planning, a reduction in transport miles and any unnecessary vehicle mileage. Dreams said it continues to replace delivery vans every five years to ensure they have the most fuel-efficient vans.
Every year, Dreams crafts 290,000 mattresses and over 200,000 divan bases and headboards at the Dreams’ Bed Factory in Oldbury, West Midlands. Making much of its range in the UK significantly reduces the mileage products have to travel and in turn, the carbon footprint from delivery. “We continue to explore more local manufacturing options to further lower our carbon footprint,” Dreams said. “We are also at the exploratory stage of circular recycling. This involves exploring how the different elements of our beds can be separated, individually recycled, and then reused in future product development. We no longer use polystyrene in packaging for any of the products we make. We are continuing to work towards removing all polystyrene from bought in products and from our Feather & Black product ranges.” Furthermore, with 8 million tonnes of plastic entering the ocean every year, Dreams offers its exclusive eco-friendly mattress range called Revived. Aimed at trying to reduce plastic in oceans, each king-size mattress is made with yarn from over 200 recycled plastic bottles. The mattress covers are made with SEAQUAL® YARN, which contains upcycled marine plastic.
Jo Martin, Chief Marketing Officer at Dreams, added: “Being a force for good is core part of our brand. We want to do right by our colleagues, the communities we touch and the planet. We’ve made some progress in these areas but we know we need to go further and faster - and we are committed to doing just that.”
CARPETRIGHT
Carpets and beds retailer Carpetright also publishes its sustainability ambitions. Not in as much depth or detail compared to IKEA, but does allow for a quick digest of its core aims. These include using less energy by using alternative electricity technology in its efforts to improve energy efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions. In fact, since 2003 the company bought 10% of its energy from renewable sources and they are “always looking for ways to increase this figure”. On waste, the business has reduced waste by nearly a third, as well as identifying stores with high water consumption, rectifying these issues and achieving a reduction of water usage by up to 85% per store. Then there’s fuel. Carpetright is reducing the distance products are carried to minimise pollution and congestion, reducing its fuel use in the process. In addition, all of its drivers have undergone fuel efficiency training, which has contributed to making a “tangible and significant reduction in fuel over the last few years”. To further boost this area to substantially reduce carbon emissions, Carpetright has started a trial with the use of electric trucks.
Carpetright has also introduced a number of energy saving initiatives across its stores, including the reduction of electricity consumption by introducing LED lighting and motion-senor technology into a number of newly refurbished stores to ensure lights are only being used when needed. In terms of products, Carpetright also offers the People and Planet collection, which features a broad range of carpets, underlay, and cork flooring, all of which are sourced carefully to ensure they are sustainably and responsibly made. For example, the sustainable carpets are made from planet friendly materials like fabric scraps, recycled fishing nets, recycled plastic bottles or pure sustainable wool. “We accept our responsibility to continually improve our environment performance. We have an Ethical and Environmental Code of Conduct to ensure that we have an ethical supply chain and require our suppliers to sign up to the code. The code prohibits, for example, animal testing, the use of timber from non-sustainable sources and the use of certain chemicals which may be harmful to customers,” the company added.
