Building Materials

A typical Ikea store consists of a very large two-story 275,000 square-foot building and over 1,500 parking spaces. As customers walk in the door they can drop the kids off at Ikea's supervised play area, grab a paper measuring tape, order form, and tiny pencil so they can write things down as they walk through the Showroom upstairs. The Showroom is a maze of little decorated rooms that are so inviting that they make visitors feel like they're in a close friend's home. They can sit on the furniture, lay on the beds, and open drawers and cabinets. Ikea's famous Swedish meatballs are served in another part of the upper level where customers dine cafeteria-style in the Ikea Restaurant. Baby feeding stations and changing areas are also available to make it easy for parents to shop with small children. Somewhere on the upper level is also a cappuccino bar where they serve coffee and other small snacks. The lower level is where customers can find Ikea's Market Hall. Here, shopping baskets are filled with non-furniture items directly from the shelves. The lower level also hosts the self-serve warehouse, checkout lanes, and yet another eating area called the Exit Bistro. In the warehouse, customers fill their flatbed carts with unassembled furniture that has been carefully packed as flat as can be.

BROWNFIELD DEVELOPMENT

Sites suitable to accommodate all of the above-mentioned services must be 12 to 20 acres, located near major highway arteries with high traffic counts, and provide attractive demographics (20). Fortunately for Ikea, these specifications are common among brownfields. As illustrated by the new Philadelphia store, which opened August of 2004, part of Ikea's environmental plan includes a preference for brownfield rehabilitation in their site selection criteria. Generally, brownfields are properties that are abandoned or underutilized because of either real or perceived contamination (21). Located on Columbus Boulevard, the Philadelphia store stands where large empty lots, derelict buildings, and unused rail yards once stood. Ikea of Elizabeth, NJ is Ikea's best performing store in North America. The Mayor of Elizabeth, J. Christian Bollwage, says that he views brownfields as unrealized opportunities for economic growth and that rehabilitating them is a winning combination for everyone (22).

Before & After

CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS

Ikea uses ACFoam-II insulation, non-ozone depleting refrigerant, and non-wood display partitions in its stores. The ACFoam-II insulation is HCFC-free and offers zero ozone depletion potential and has no global warming potential while still maintaining high-grade construction quality. It has between 17 and 68 percent of recycled material by weight. The HVAC units and refrigerant for most of North America's stores do not contain CFCs. On Ikea's showroom floor, the rooms are separated by non-wood partitions that are made from various grains that are unsuitable for feeding farm animals. It is rapidly renewable and the plants are primarily used in textile and paper production. These panels cost less than wood and do not harm old growth forests.

PARKING

At Ikea's Conshohocken, Pennsylvania store, about half of their store's parking spaces are located under the store in an underground parking garage. This minimizes the area that the store paves with asphalt.

RECYCLING & TAKE-BACK PROGRAMS

Ikea stores generated 143,000 tons of waste during FY 2003 so reducing the amount of waste they generate is one of their top priorities. They try to ensure that as much waste as possible is recycled or used for energy production. Each store sorts waste into categories such as plastic, wood, metals, glass, etc. Customers can also bring back waste such as packaging, batteries, and low-energy light bulbs to that Ikea can reuse or recycle them. Their goal is that by 2005, at least 90% of waste should be recycled, reclaimed or used in energy production. In Europe, the average for material recycling or energy production is 77 percent while North America is only 57 percent. Ikea reduced the size of their catalog and only prints on non-chlorine bleached paper (24). Also, rather than discarding returned or damaged merchandise, which generates enormous amounts of waste placed in landfills, Ikea repairs and refurbishes items to be sold in each store's As-Is section at a discounted price. If an item cannot be repaired, the piece is used for spare parts (11). Ikea estimates that the As-Is program prevents the land filling or approximately 1,000 tons of waste per year. Throughout the holidays, some Ikea stores run a "Rent a Tree--Plant a Tree" program where customers can rent a 6' fir tree for a small deposit and fee. After the holiday, the customers return the tree, get the deposit back and Ikea mulches the tree. The customer either keeps the compost or it is given to the local municipality. Ikea and the National Arbor Day Foundation then use the profits of the program to plant another tree in its place. (24)

ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCES

At the Ikea distribution centers and some stores, glass spheres installed on the roofs funnel sunlight into the spaces below. On sunny days, the electric lamps are automatically shut off and the building is illuminated for free. At a store in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 175 solar electric panels provide its energy and customers can read about it at a special public education display in the store’s main entrance (23). At a distribution center in Peterborough, UK, the largest geothermal heating and cooling plant in Britain is located under a parking lot. Using this water to heat the building in winter and cool it down in the summer saves enormous amounts of electricity, which prevents the unnecessary burning of fossil fuels. (17) I n Calgary, Canada, Ikea purchases power from a private provider that utilizes wind generators. Ikea also utilizes and sells low-energy light bulbs and more energy efficient lighting sources. The energy-saving bulb saves 80% energy and they last 10 times longer than standard bulbs. Ikea also has a program where you can bring them back to the store to be recycled to minimize trace amounts of mercury entering the waste stream. Ikea's goal is that by the end of FY 2005, 10% of the energy used by Ikea warehouses for heat and electricity comes from renewable energy sources.