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IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

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Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#61

Post by renewiltord »

loceng wrote: post #23
piokoch wrote: post #14

This smells like some really bold and really ridiculous PR attempt. "Ikea uses about one percent—yes, one percent—of the world's entire commercial wood supply. That amounts to about 17.8 million cubic yards of lumber last year. " [1] I guess they need this PR purchase to appease some eko organization. And this is equally ridiculous. Ikea is making furniture, something people really need. Why they have to explain them…

It's because they're fighting the arguably true reality that the majority of their furniture is designed to be disposable, and consumers are generally fine with that. I'd like to be wrong, though until we require companies to be responsible for all costs associated with the full lifecycle of a product so externalized costs are incorporated, we're not going to develop the most sustainable practices.

Doesn't seem that bad to make forests, then cut them down, mix them together with stuff that makes them non-compostable and then just jamming it in the ground.

Some local pollution, but you ultimately are sequestering the carbon, so all is well.

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#62

Post by pelasaco »

pelasaco wrote: post #34
andy_ppp wrote: post #5

How much would buying all the Brazilian rain forest cost the world, or even renting it from Brazil? We would need it to be slightly more than cattle farming to work... but I’d happily pay towards this.

well, in first place Brazil (or Peru, Suriname, etc) should be wanting to sell or rent it. Which they aren't. Second, it won't help to buy or rent it if there is no control in the region. Third, Europe together with China are the biggest market of illegal wood. France has a high military presence on the French Guyana, and they could definitely pass intelligence to some navy to catch the boats leaving Brazil/Suriname…

I remember when I served in the region, we did some exercises together with the 3rd regiment of the French Legion, and they had even a sea operation force that could definitely work on that if Macron could do more than Virtue Signaling on Twitter about this matter

Reference:

https://twitter.com/emmanuelmacron/status/116461700896252723...

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#65

Post by michaelgrafl »

Melting_Harps wrote: post #39
piokoch wrote: post #14

This smells like some really bold and really ridiculous PR attempt. "Ikea uses about one percent—yes, one percent—of the world's entire commercial wood supply. That amounts to about 17.8 million cubic yards of lumber last year. " [1] I guess they need this PR purchase to appease some eko organization. And this is equally ridiculous. Ikea is making furniture, something people really need. Why they have to explain them…

> This smells like some really bold and really ridiculous PR attempt. Of course it is, they just use illegal loggers in Romania to offset their actual need for the crappy disposable stuff they produce. They seem to get away with that no problem, despite EU restrictions on it. I've never seen the appeal of IKEA when it came to furniture, the long lines at some of the bigger ones I've been to (for breakfast) are baffli…

Because Ikea is the only affordable furniture chain that makes good looking furniture.

By that I mean that Ikea furniture doesn't chase current trends the way all the other big chains do (I'm in Austria). So buying furniture from Ikea means that you can use it for a long time without your home looking from a certain area.

Also, going to Ikea with kids is a great experience. It's almost like going to a theme park, and alternatively you can drop them off at the Småland.

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#66

Post by oblio »

jacquesm wrote: post #58
Melting_Harps wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This smells like some really bold and really ridiculous PR attempt. Of course it is, they just use illegal loggers in Romania to offset their actual need for the crappy disposable stuff they produce. They seem to get away with that no problem, despite EU restrictions on it. I've never seen the appeal of IKEA when it came to furniture, the long lines at some of the bigger ones I've been to (for breakfast) are baffli…

IKEA is just as dutch as the Rolling Stones.

Well, it is Dutch. Just saying it isn't doesn't change anything. They're registered in the Netherlands and operate in accordance with Dutch laws.

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#67

Post by oblio »

melomal wrote: post #10
fy20 wrote: post #7

Somewhat related. IKEA is the largest owner of forests in Lithuania (around 33% of the total land area is forest): https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/1104260/ikea-the-bi... At the time of this article (2019), they owned 66,000 acres of forest in the country.

Damn, love these little/random facts about my mother country.

Well, if it helps, they're the biggest land (forest?) owner in Romania, too. They own something like 50 000 hectares. It's probably not 1/3rd of Romania, we're a bit bigger :-p

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#68

Post by trymas »

fy20 wrote: post #7

Somewhat related. IKEA is the largest owner of forests in Lithuania (around 33% of the total land area is forest): https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/1104260/ikea-the-bi... At the time of this article (2019), they owned 66,000 acres of forest in the country.

For someone who does not know how much is an acre: 66k acres is ~27k hectares or 270sq.km.

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#69

Post by loceng »

renewiltord wrote: post #61
loceng wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's because they're fighting the arguably true reality that the majority of their furniture is designed to be disposable, and consumers are generally fine with that. I'd like to be wrong, though until we require companies to be responsible for all costs associated with the full lifecycle of a product so externalized costs are incorporated, we're not going to develop the most sustainable practices.

Doesn't seem that bad to make forests, then cut them down, mix them together with stuff that makes them non-compostable and then just jamming it in the ground. Some local pollution, but you ultimately are sequestering the carbon, so all is well.

Is there a silent /sarcasm tag at the end of this comment?

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#70

Post by oblio »

Varriount wrote: post #52
fimdomeio wrote: post #13

I have a problem with IKEA. Aren't those peaces of furniture made of composite materials and those not so sturdy shelves a sustainability problem when compared to traditional furniture making which is mostly wood glue a protective coat which lasts for hundreds of years can be infinitely repaired in a workshop with some basic tools. And then it it all ends it can became firewood, which ikea furniture can't. Shouldn't…

I would say most pieces of furniture sold these days are made of engineered wood [0], if that's what you mean by "composite materials". Aside from easier sourcing, I presume that a big driver of it's use is the fact that it is easier to shape and produce - no having to figure out how it will be assembled using the various sizes of timber available. The actual solid-wood furniture I have seen is either quite expensive…

> The actual solid-wood furniture I have seen is either quite expensive, or (somewhat ironically) unfinished.

It's also super heavy, which I personally hate. Annoying to move in, move out, move around.

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