Sustainable Development & Responsible Business

With the rise in the global climate and the current economic situation, I believe that it’s now more important than ever for companies to practice sound socially responsible business. Social responsible companies offer better working conditions for their employees, look for ways to reduce their impact on the environment and take their customers best interests in to account throughout their working days. A company who is fully committed to these issues incorporates them in to everything they do in their working environment, which can have endless benefits for themselves and the world around them.

I’ve had the pleasure of working for Ikea for several months when I first came to Finland and I was surprised at the level of care they gave to their employees and to their customers. A strong emphasis was placed on making the everyday working environment as comfortable and as healthy as possible for their employees. A strong Human Resources department, clean and safe working conditions, regular nutritious meals and extra perks, such as massages, were all available to ensure we had the best outlook of the company for which we could transfer over to their customers. Childcare facilities, reasonable priced fresh food and well-designed stores are a standard offered to customers to make their shopping experience as enjoyable as possible. These are only a few examples of their socially responsible practices that have made them, in my opinion, a leader in the home products business.

After spending more time in Finland I began to realize that Ikea was not the only place where social responsible practices were a priority. In fact I quickly noticed that Finland, and Scandinavia in general, were particularly focused on recycling and improving the environment. Nokia and Electrolux are two large companies that are examples of this