Case Studies: IKEA

Good service record earns IKEA contract for Greenbank

An Ikea store's ongoing efforts to reduce its carbon footprint have resulted in a renewed relationship with waste handling and recycling equipment supplier, Greenbank.

The Gateshead branch of the Swedish furniture store is using a Greenbank compactor to reduce the volume of restaurant waste that cannot be recycled.

Now, instead of having a skip collected 16 times a month (and more over Bank Holiday weekends and peak trading periods), the company is visited just once a week by a waste collecting company.

Kylie Wilson, Environmental Specialist at the North East Ikea branch, said they were constantly trying to reduce their carbon footprint and having the compactor had vastly reduced its transport costs and impact.

"We are always looking at our energy consumption and ways in which it can be reduced, including trying to encourage both customers and employees to use greener modes of transport to get to and from the store," Kylie added.

"Larger scale initiatives include changing our product packing to reduce the size. This means we can get more onto each wagon, thus reducing the total number on the road."

Greenbank - whose head office is just 50 miles down the road from Ikea Gateshead - didn't just provide advice and supply the compacting machine but helped finalise details for a concrete pad on which to stand the machine and put the company in touch with a firm that would collect Ikea's compacted bales.

Said Kylie: "We had dealt with Greenbank in the past and received good service and the solution they offered this time has proved to be an ideal one for us. It is greatly reducing our transport costs."

Robin Evershed, Greenbank's Sales Director, said they had been delighted to have been able to provide solutions for Ikea for all aspects of their compactor purchase - from organising for the appropriate base to be laid to arranging collection of the waste.

He added: "Everyone at our family-run business prides themselves on going the extra mile for customers - whether they are large household names or small independent businesses - and that is what makes Greenbank stand out from other waste and recycling machine suppliers."