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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 d

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-executive/story?id=9072719 https://abcnews.go.com/International/ikea-fire-book-executiv... [1] How Ikea And Harvard Got Tangled In A Corrupt Romanian Land Deal https://www.huffpost.com/entry/harvard-ikea-corruption-romania_n_56d86cbbe4b0000de4039509 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/harvard-ikea-corruption-roman... [2] Swedish group IKEA starts exploiting its forests in Romania https://www.romania-insider.com/swedish-group-ikea-starts-exploiting-forests-romania https://www.romania-insider.com/swedish-group-ikea-starts-ex... [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-structure-designed-to-facilitate-profit-shifting-and-tax-avoidance-798caf842fb6 https://medium.com/@jurgeng/ikeas-tax-scheme-a-corporate-str...

me_me_me 7y ago
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 7y ago
  The biggest corporations pay lots of "taxes". It's interesting how corporations "aren't people" until taxes come up :)
  - me_me_me 7y ago
    They are not people despite the fact they they want everyone thing that they are. > The biggest corporations pay lots of "taxes" You could almost say that they pay thousands. https://lmgtfy.com/?q=corporate+taxes+paid+in+2018 https://lmgtfy.com/?q=corporate+taxes+paid+in+2018
  - exit 7y ago
    > 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?
orf 7y ago
Ikea is in the middle of fitting solar panels onto the roofs of their global stores. Turns out they have a lot of space up there, and have over a million panels worldwide. They are also investing really heavily in wind farms and large one-off turbines - 3 billion dollars invested in the last 8 years. They own more turbines than they have stores, and are working with a bunch of interesting startups to develop tools to manage this fleet of disparate turbines (source: interviewed at one). So yeah, I guess talk on the internet is cheap.
_pmf_ 7y ago
In Germany, we have come to call this the renaissance of the Sale of Indulgences. It's a very good analogy. Heck, look at this crap: https://www.lufthansa.com/us/en/carbon-offsetting https://www.lufthansa.com/us/en/carbon-offsetting Lufthansa is allowing you to pay to offset the carbon footprint of your flight. That's some next level delusion.
zubspace 7y ago
It's a form of greenwashing [1] and unfortunately very effective. If you spend enough money on advertising, showing your company in an environmentally friendly light, most consumers will simply accept it and lift your company above any other. The only way to really combat this in a sustainable way would be forcing the internalisation of all external costs. But most companies would never let that happen. We need a strong political party which is willing to cut through all this greenwashing and enforce a better use of our limited resources or at least make it cost them. But in all honestly, I don't see that coming any time soon. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwashing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwashing

me_me_me 7y ago

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 7y ago
The biggest corporations pay lots of "taxes". It's interesting how corporations "aren't people" until taxes come up :)
- me_me_me 7y ago
  They are not people despite the fact they they want everyone thing that they are. > The biggest corporations pay lots of "taxes" You could almost say that they pay thousands. https://lmgtfy.com/?q=corporate+taxes+paid+in+2018 https://lmgtfy.com/?q=corporate+taxes+paid+in+2018
- exit 7y ago
  > 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?

orf 7y ago

Ikea is in the middle of fitting solar panels onto the roofs of their global stores. Turns out they have a lot of space up there, and have over a million panels worldwide. They are also investing really heavily in wind farms and large one-off turbines - 3 billion dollars invested in the last 8 years. They own more turbines than they have stores, and are working with a bunch of interesting startups to develop tools to manage this fleet of disparate turbines (source: interviewed at one). So yeah, I guess talk on the internet is cheap.

_pmf_ 7y ago

In Germany, we have come to call this the renaissance of the Sale of Indulgences. It's a very good analogy. Heck, look at this crap: https://www.lufthansa.com/us/en/carbon-offsetting https://www.lufthansa.com/us/en/carbon-offsetting Lufthansa is allowing you to pay to offset the carbon footprint of your flight. That's some next level delusion.

zubspace 7y ago

It's a form of greenwashing [1] and unfortunately very effective. If you spend enough money on advertising, showing your company in an environmentally friendly light, most consumers will simply accept it and lift your company above any other. The only way to really combat this in a sustainable way would be forcing the internalisation of all external costs. But most companies would never let that happen. We need a strong political party which is willing to cut through all this greenwashing and enforce a better use of our limited resources or at least make it cost them. But in all honestly, I don't see that coming any time soon. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwashing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwashing