Re: Re: Environment minister removes cap on superstores like IKEA

I like the Swedish.

These are quotes from IKEA’s own social and environmental responsibility report
http://www.ikea-group.ikea.com/corporate/PDF/IKEA%20Report2003.pdf

Traffic to and from the stores
Most IKEA customers travel to and from the stores in their
own cars. IKEA studies show that only about 10 percent of
visitors use public transport.

Public transport
Several stores are carrying out trials to encourage coworkers
to use public transport, to share cars to and from
work, or to cycle in order to reduce journeys by car to the
store.
Some IKEA stores have their own shuttle buses linking
them with the city centre. As a general rule IKEA endeavours
to locate its stores in areas served by efficient public
transport. IKEA has formulated its own list of requirements
for what constitutes “efficient public transport”:

• public transport, preferably rail transport or equivalent,
  linking the store to the city centre or to a regional transport
  hub
• there must be an embarkation/disembarkation point
  within 150 metres of the store exit
• timetables must be clearly displayed at the exit to the
  store
• there must be at least one trip in each direction every
  hour during store opening hours

Home delivery
IKEA customers can use the home delivery service for
goods. In most stores this service is provided by an independent
company, and in most instances IKEA has started
to put environmental demands on these contractors as
well.

IKEA has decided to focus on:

• Investments in renewable energy.
• Further actions to reduce the amount of waste and increase
  the amount of reclaimed/recycled materials.
• Continuing with projects to contribute to reducing the
  environmental impact of co-worker and customer traffic
  to and from the stores. For example, public transport needs
  to be more readily available, and customers should be offered
  more help with home delivery of their purchases at a reasonable price.

and

The target is,
by the end of financial year 2005, 75 percent of
IKEA stores should have efficient public transports.
For financial year 2003, 77 percent of IKEA stores had efficient
public transport links.
IKEA are currently on the target set up and are investigating on
how to improve the situation further for new and existing stores.
This includes to define a new target.

and

What are the biggest challenges for IKEA as far as
increased social responsibility and environmental protection
are concerned?
The environmental impact of our transport requirements is
a huge challenge. We’re doing all we can to pack more
products into every shipment and to increase our use of
rail transport. IKEA customers drive to our stores, so we
need to be better at creating the right conditions for more
of them to use public transport when they visit us. On the
social side, the top priority is to create good conditions for
our suppliers’ employees in countries where human rights
are still in their infancy. One thing is clear. We still have a
great deal to do.”