Investigating short term strategies in product sustainability index implementation, a case study at IKEA

Part of: Seliger, Günther (Ed.):Innovative solutions : proceedings / 11th Global Conference on Sustainable Manufacturing, Berlin, Germany, 23rd - 25th September, 2013. - Berlin: Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin, 2013. - ISBN 978-3-7983-2609-5 (online). - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:83-opus4-40276. - pp. 49–53.Companies are aware of long term benefits of sustainability, and that in the future the competitive landscape will change. However, financial concerns slow down the sustainability development process. This article aims to explore how companies move toward long term benefits of sustainability without compromise in their financial objectives in short term. This study focuses on investigating how companies use sustainability index tool as a component of short term strategy. Findings indicate that companies try to simplify the sustainability assessment and combine it with other decision making tools. This simplification is toward finding potential improvements in the product level. Results are summarized in a model which corresponds to the short term strategy development process toward sustainability. This model describes how company identifies critical products based on financial, strategic and sustainability aspects. The investigation has been performed at children’s IKEA in Sweden