The Sustainability Product Scorecard at IKEA : - framework and range analysis

Sammanfattning: The Sustainability Product Scorecard (SPS) is a new tool developed by IKEA of Sweden and it is used to measure the level of sustainability of each product within the range. Eleven weighted criteria are used to evaluate each product and the calculated score is compared to the targeted level of a More Sustainable product. The total score of the range is then to be compared with the overall goal for fiscal year 2015 of having 90% of the sales share deemed as More Sustainable. The purpose of this thesis is to score and analyse parts of the running range and evaluate how to best meet the goals of FY15. Also, there is a need to further integrate the SPS tool in the new product development process since the initial implementation has met resistance and a subjective interpretation of how and when to work with the tool has arisen. The objectives of this thesis required an initial exploratory research approach to be able to get a holistic view of the problem at hand. As the problem became less vague from a deeper understanding, unnecessary data and approaches could be filtered out. The use of interviews provided qualitative findings, whereas the scoring process gave quantitative data for analysis. The investigation into the usage of the SPS tool and the scoring process has been performed at two departments. The first, Lighting, has by the end of this thesis a sales share of 25% More Sustainable products. The second, Store and Organize, reached further with 47% of its sales share being deemed as More Sustainable. The interviews performed and the experience gained throughout this process has shown that Lighting has come further with the integration of the tool, partly due to the fact that it is smaller, and thus less integration is need, and partly because a fixed and consistent way of working with the SPS tool has been deployed. At the second department, and the business area to which it belongs, the interviews have shown that there is frustration and confusion regarding both how and when to use the SPS tool. Based on the findings, Lighting should focus on solution that can be used across the entire range, e.g. including low energy bulbs or redesign the lampstands used. Store and Organize should focus on individual product families and actions should be taken regarding the materials in, and the quality of, the products, as well as the suppliers used. A framework has also been developed to enable a consistent way of work with the purpose of removing the subjective interpretations that have been present.