
IKEA invests 200M euro to become climate positive by 2030 - rkraaijenhagen
https://newsroom.inter.ikea.com/news/all/ikea-invests-200-million-euros-to-speed-up-action-to-become-climate-positive-by-2030/s/c3181331-23d9-473e-9d56-20e0c3db7c66
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DyslexicAtheist
Ikea: now that we have carved up the budget, how can we disseminate the
message so that it makes a) employees feel good and b) ensure customers
believe we are doing our best. Ideally how are we going to deflect from all
our past and ongoing crimes[0][1][2][3]?

Sven Samenström: Oh I know, we just say it's to combat climate change and put
a timeline on it so far into the future that nobody will remember this PR
piece, and nobody will hold us accountable.

Talk is cheap!

[0] Spies and Racism at Ikea? [https://abcnews.go.com/International/ikea-fire-
book-executiv...](https://abcnews.go.com/International/ikea-fire-book-
executive/story?id=9072719)

[1] How Ikea And Harvard Got Tangled In A Corrupt Romanian Land Deal
[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/harvard-ikea-corruption-
roman...](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/harvard-ikea-corruption-
romania_n_56d86cbbe4b0000de4039509)

[2] Swedish group IKEA starts exploiting its forests in Romania
[https://www.romania-insider.com/swedish-group-ikea-starts-
ex...](https://www.romania-insider.com/swedish-group-ikea-starts-exploiting-
forests-romania)

[3] IKEA’s Flat-Pack Tax Scheme: a Corporate Structure Designed to Facilitate
Profit-shifting and Tax Avoidance [https://medium.com/@jurgeng/ikeas-tax-
scheme-a-corporate-str...](https://medium.com/@jurgeng/ikeas-tax-scheme-a-
corporate-structure-designed-to-facilitate-profit-shifting-and-tax-
avoidance-798caf842fb6)

~~~
me_me_me
I thought I was cynical, but this is exactly how I see it. Biggest
corporations pay no or near to nothing taxes and then they give a small
handouts to communities and we suppose to kiss their feet for being so
generous.

Same happened with starbucks recently where they offer to supplement budget
with once off donation instead of paying their fair share.

~~~
Rapzid
The biggest corporations pay lots of "taxes".

It's interesting how corporations "aren't people" until taxes come up :)

~~~
exit
_> The biggest corporations pay lots of "taxes"._

what does putting taxes in quotation marks signify here? do you think they pay
taxes under some other name?

 _> It's interesting how corporations "aren't people" until taxes come up :)_

what's the argument here? are you saying that only natural people should be
taxed?

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PeterStuer
Here is what I would like from IKEA if they truly want to embrace the climate.

I would like them to move towards durable quality furniture that last 100
years instead of furniture as a fashion business where you redecorate every
season.

I would like them to stop creating mazes designed to maximize impulse
purchasing.

~~~
quickthrower2
IKEA furniture is durable and has a decent second hand marketplace on ebay,
gumtree etc.

~~~
lnsru
Can you provide some examples? Currently sold furniture is basically junk made
from paper. It would not stand 2nd or 3rd relocation. Heck, it gets broken
during first assembly!

Old second hand pieces are good quality, but one needs to look for at least
decade old things. They were made from wood back then.

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SeaSeaRider
In Sweden, the land of a billion trees, Ikea wooden spoons are made in China
and transported to Sweden. ANY company that does this and claims to be green
is blowing smoke up your ass.

~~~
prawn
Wouldn't they be transported around the world? Surely IKEA doesn't manufacture
abroad, bring everything to Sweden, and then ship out from there! Perhaps
China is a reasonably central point to transport from?

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bloogsy
Admirable - considering the size of IKEA as a business this can only be a good
thing. Hopefully they reach carbon neutral sooner than 2030 before pushing on
to carbon positive. My only concern is that planting trees isn't necessarily
accurate measured as a carbon sink, with the amount of carbon captured often
overestimated. However to reiterate, this can only be a good thing.

~~~
Ndymium
There's a lot of talk about planting trees now with TeamTrees and other
similar things. I'm wondering what we will do with all the trees then when
they have stopped growing and thus mostly stop sequestering CO₂. Trees don't
live forever and when they die and rot, they will release the CO₂ back.

We could build things out of the trees and those would last maybe 50 to 100
years more. Or we could encase them in concrete and bury them to prevent
rotting. But I don't really know a good solution and I was wondering what
people have already thought of it. Or is the plan that we will come up with a
solution to that in the next 50 years when the trees grow?

~~~
CalRobert
Growing them to restore grazing or otherwise degraded land works, though.

~~~
Ndymium
Hmm so when a forest grows, it sequesters a certain amount. When the trees
start dying, they will start releasing it. But when the trees die, new trees
will start growing in their stead and sequester the CO₂ released from the
dying trees. Is the point to capture CO₂ into these cycles? So as only part of
the trees are dying at any given stage, only a part of the CO₂ is "available"
in the air at any given moment.

Is that how it works?

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krn
I believe that IKEA is climate negative by design: it's H&M / Primark of
furniture world. Because just like fast fashion, _fast furniture_ encourages
extreme levels of production and consumption of short-lasting goods, which are
later often thrown away, rather than being resold and reused.

~~~
Tomte
In my experience, IKEA furniture is handed down multiple times.

I myself have IKEA CD racks that I bought, gave my parents when I moved, they
gave them to my sister when she moved and needed them, and after fifteen years
or so they are back in my current apartment.

(OT: why the hell did they discontinue this absolutely classic line? Just
because it didn't really work for Blu-rays?)

Actually, my apartment looks quite eclectic, since I have lots and lots of
IKEA furniture from my student days mingled with "solid" furniture bought
later and a few high-end furniture pieces bought much later.

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owenversteeg
I have a feeling that, gradually, the most visible businesses and products
will become greener, with nearly everything else remaining massively
polluting.

IKEA might become carbon neutral, while companies supplying furniture to
furnished apartments, office buildings, etc. won't do anything. Nobody will
know if "Franklin Property Management" or whatnot is or isn't green.

------
growlist
I'll be amazed if that's enough.

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rahuldottech
A good thing, but too late. 2030 is too late.

~~~
exit
it really may be.

it may be too late to do anything short of dramatic geo-engineering to avert
catastrophic climate change.

but there is still value in even marginal improvements to the climate change
outcome. you have to compound the contribution over the entire remaining
history of life on this planet.

this is a horrifying situation. no one should deny how badly humanity has
screwed up.

~~~
majewsky
> but there is still value in even marginal improvements to the climate change
> outcome.

Especially because even modest impacts slightly increase the chance to not hit
the next tipping point.

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interdrift
Excellent, the EU should be a leader in this

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aaron695
It's an awful awful waste of money in a world with a billion people living on
less than $2 a day just to comfort some rich brats.

But then they spend $444 million a year on advertising, so it's not like we
don't live in a world were large amounts are $ are ploughed into the ground.
Planting trees will at least have some benefit going forward.

~~~
rimliu
Seriously? Those living on $2 a day do so just to comfort some rich brats?

~~~
exit
no, the parent is saying IKEAs efforts are just a matter of comforting "some
rich brats", and that these efforts are "a billion people living on less than
$2 a day"

