IKEA's Swedish expansion missed the mark on cutting customer emissions
A new analysis reveals that IKEA's store network expansion in Sweden between 2004 and 2016 reduced average travel distances to stores, but could have done better. Researchers found the company could have achieved the same environmental gains with fewer, better-placed locations—a lesson for any retailer balancing growth with sustainability commitments.
Originaltitel: Minimizing travel distance and last-mile CO<sub>2</sub> emissions when reconfiguring retail store networks
<p>Retail chains continually reconfigure their store networks to serve their customers and maximize profits. One consequence of these actions is changes in the distances between consumers’ residences and nearest stores, altering their transportation-related CO2 emissions. Therefore, this study examines the environmental impact of the reconfiguration of the IKEA store network in Sweden during the twenty-first century, comparing it to the one that minimizes consumers’ CO2 emissions. The expansion of the IKEA network in Sweden between 2004 and 2016, adding four (2004–2007) and then three (2013–2016) additional stores, reduced consumers’ average travel distance to their nearest store from 87 to 65.2 km. However, using our decision support tool, eCOmpass, this reduction could have been achieved after the first round of additions since the distance-minimizing locations for the stores established in 2004–2007 would have reduced average travel distance to 64.9 km.</p>