Ikea’s sustainability strategy is in line with its vision of creating a better everyday life for many people. The effectiveness of this strategy can be analyzed using the triple bottom line. It is an accounting framework with three parts: social, environmental and economic.

The company has promoted social development in the community through its sustainability strategy. Ikea believes in gender equality. It has done this by proving finical and management support to women in developing counties, like India and Brazil. This has resulted in reduction of absolute and relative poverty, as the business are a source of income. Furthermore Ikea continuous to support these businesses through buying small proportion of supplies of raw material from them. At the co-operate level Ikea has promote gender balance in leadership role, i.e. delegating and trusting their women employees.

These initiatives have resulted in better relationship with the community, because of the positive image created. This will also make employees feel proud about the company, resulting in motivated and loyal employees, i.e. creating a positive working environment. Consequently reducing labour turnover.

Ikea respects the nature and it is known through its initiative to use 100% renewable energy and reduce carbon footprint by 50% by 2020. Moreover the company wants every stage of production to be environmentally sustainable. Its production process are in the early stages of cradle to cradle design, which involves circulation of raw material without any wastage (like the nutrient cycle). This will result increase output and reduced costs in the long-run. It’s environmentally sustainable because it reduces the amount of toxic materials emitted as the materials remain in a close loop. Additionally, Ikea has used the IWAY supplier’s code of conduct. Which involves suppliers respecting labour laws, the environment responsible forestry management and more. This code of suggests that Ikea is in a mutual agreement with its suppliers, thus show casing a long lasting relationship with its suppliers. Lastly being environmentally friendly is a form of managing scares resources effectively, and increasing competitiveness.

Due to social and environmental benefits achieved, Ikea has experienced economic benefits. Firstly, it has experienced 9x increase in sales revenue, due to its loyal customers, and these customers are very important for the business as they result in repeat purchase. In addition, the company has also experienced reduction in costs, through the use of flat packaging and other lean manufacturing techniques.

In conclusion, I believe that the company and the community has benefited from its sustainability strategies.

Works sited

1)    Ikea Sustanabilty Report (2015) Available at: http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/img/ad_content/2015_IKEA_sustainability_report.pdf (Accessed: 3 October 2016). In-line Citation:(Ikea Sustanabilty Report, 2015)