Chosen as one of Canada's Greenest Employers for 2011:
By Kristina Leung and Richard Yerema, Mediacorp Canada Inc. staff editor
(
Apr 20, 2011)
Some of the reasons why IKEA Canada Limited Partnership was selected as one of Canada's Greenest Employers (2011):
regularly conducts environmental audits to ensure its stores continue to maintain and improve their internal efforts to recycle, reduce waste and save energy -- and has in-store environmental committees that meet regularly and work to ensure that their store is living-up to its audit standards and goals
offers preferred green parking spaces for customers who drive hybrid, fuel-efficient or electric vehicles, and offers a shuttle bus service at its Toronto store locations
is celebrating 15 years of working with Tree Canada with employees participating in the annual "Pick a Tree, Plant a Tree" initiative -- the non-profit organization has planted over 70 million trees since 1992 and IKEA Canada employees have planted over 16,000 trees during this time -- and IKEA also supports this initiative by directing a portion of the revenue from every Christmas tree sold to the non-profit organization
maintains recycling depots at Canadian store locations where customers can drop off compact fluorescent light bulbs (which contain low levels of mercury), halogen bulbs and old batteries free of charge -- and even accepts used bulbs and batteries from non-IKEA brands
announced last year that it will phase-out the sale of incandescent bulbs in 2011 (a full year ahead of proposed government bans), offering only low-energy bulbs like Sparsam, LED, Halogens and solar lighting products
internationally, the parent company maintains a strict sourcing policy for its suppliers of wood products, refusing to accept illegally-felled wood or wood from intact natural forests, requiring all suppliers to document the origin of their wood, and supporting this policy with in-house forestry specialists who monitor and work closely with suppliers and forestry companies (IKEA's long term goal is to source all wood for its products from Forest Stewardship Council certified sources.)
the coffee that IKEA offers is also UTZ Certified, which is an international certification that works to ensure that growers provide workers health and safety training, access to proper healthcare, affordable housing and schools for children -- and coffee producers must also reduce environmental impacts of their operation -- preventing soil erosion and using less energy, water, fertilizers and pesticides
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