The Institute for Industrial Productivity and IKEA are partners in a Green Vendor Development Programme in India

PROJECT TIMELINE

• IIP and IKEA Trading (Hong Kong) Ltd. have signed an MOU to pilot to improve energy and environmental performance of IKEA’s vendors. Subject to a successful pilot, both parties express interest in scaling up the initiative.

  The Institute for Industrial Productivity is partnering with IKEA in India to design and implement a new Green Vendor Development Program to “green” IKEA’s supply chain. The Program encourages IKEA’s vendors to use cleaner technologies, processes, raw materials and equipment in order to enhance productivity and environmental performance. The program supports IKEA’s efforts to develop sustainable supply chain initiatives around the world.

Activities

In order to help IKEA’s vendors to adopt a low carbon growth path, detailed energy and environmental assessments were carried out for selected representative IKEA textile vendors. These assessments were then used to develop a prioritized action plan for each vendor to underpin investment decisions that would both improve the efficiency of resource use, and reduce carbon footprint.  The following specific activities were undertaken through this initiative:

•  Energy audits to provide an in-depth assessment of energy consumption patterns and processes and identify resource conservation opportunities, along with cost-benefit analyses of various options

•  Environment audits to assess material sourcing and substitution, waste minimization, reuse and recycling options

•  Benchmarking to identify performance improvements

•  Preparation of an Action plan in collaboration with plant managers to arrive at a prioritized action plan for implementation

•  Implementation support to help vendors to implement these action plans, including post-implementation energy and environment audits and quantifying these benefits and co-benefits