Ikea's Promise: A Sustainable Strategy

20/20 Sustainability by 2020

As one of the biggest manufacturers of wooden products, Ikea believes they have a responsibility to the environment to set sustainable standards in the timber trade in order to prevent further deforestation from occurring across the globe. Sourcing wood from all over the world and not being able to own its own forests, this is not a simple task. But they have one goal keeping them striving forward: Forest Positive 2020. They plan to achieve this goal by ensuring the forests that produce their wood are FSC-certified (IKEA Group Sustainability Strategy for 2020, 2012). The FSC was created to help non-governmental organizations address sustainability when the Conference for the Environment and Development in Rio in 1992 failed to set and protect forest regulation standards (Gandenberger 2011). This is an example of neoliberal governmentality. Instead of relying on governments to implement rules that benefit people or the environment, independent or non-governmental organizations establish their own standards. The FSC rely on market-based transactions in order for their organization to succeed and work alongside other neoliberal entities such as the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the World Bank (Gandenberger 2011). As discussed in the consumption section, FSC-certified wood is a way to monitor and label wood as originating from sustainable practices.

What is being FSC-Certified Really Entail?

From conserving biodiversity to ensuring the laws are being implemented, the Forest Stewardship Council monitors forests in over 80 countries and this number continues to grow every year. Labels are powerful and can change how a consumer sees a product. For this reason, it is so important to understand what it really means for a country or companies timber to be sustainably certified. While research suggests FSC-certified products are in fact environmentally sustainable and carefully monitored, the concern many critiques have of the FSC lies in their policies and exclusion of underdeveloped and non-Eurocentric countries. Similar to Ikea’s sources, predominately FSC-certified countries are located in Europe and North America. 80% of FSC-certified forests are located in North American and European countries (Gandenberger 2011). This brings up issues concerning global inequality and economic opportunity.

Critiques of the FSC

Three main problems come with sustainable timber certification. The first problem is FSC certification can be costly for underdeveloped countries (Gandenberger 2011). Global North countries already have strict established standards set by their governments so they do not have to spend much on new practices and industrial regulations in order to reach FSC standards. This is not the case for global south regions such as Africa, South America, and Asia (Gandenberger 2011). This brings us to our second problem. FSC-certified forests cannot independently establish rules and regulations on forest managements. Instead, governments can only adopt FSC regulations. While this a barrier to neoliberal governmentality and the liberalization of the timber trade, the FSC has a strong upper hand on these governments. More and more companies are demanding FSC-

certified wood and will not buy from sources that are not certified. This is neither beneficial for the environment nor the countries economy. The current FSC-certification process keeps forest companies in countries that cannot afford to be certified out of business because companies will not buy timber from them and it also does not address deforestation in countries that have very little to zero sustainable standards implemented by their legislatures (Gandenberger 2011). This form of post-colonial capitalism is benefitting countries that have more environmentally aware governments and excluding countries that are less industrialized or poorer with corrupt governments and increasingly endangered forests to continue to be uncertified or monitored. Thirdly, alongside unequal participation of global south countries, the FSC does not empower actors on a local level. While the organization does promote participation from indigenous communities, this is hard to implement if the laws are not established on a national level (Gandenberger 2011).

To conclude, in order for the FSC to make a substantial impact on stopping global deforestation, the NGO must work closely with local businesses to establish sustainable standards with regards to local and indigenous communities in underdeveloped countries. They also need to collaborate with international businesses to pressure global south governments to implemented FSC standards.

Bibliography:

Ikea, “Becoming Forest Positive.” Ikea.com. 2014. Image.
Gandenberger, Carsten. “Assessing the Effects of Certification Networks on Sustainable Production and Consumption: The Cases of FLO and FSC.” Journal of Consumer Policy, no. 34.1 (2011): 107-126.
Ikea Group Sustainability Strategy for 2020, “People and Planet Positive.” Published Oct. 2012. Updated June 2014. Web.

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Watch video to learn more about Forest Positive 2020.