This document discusses three environmentally friendly companies - IKEA, Unilever, and Patagonia. IKEA aims to source all wood from sustainable sources and cotton from suppliers following Better Cotton standards by 2020. Unilever adopted a Sustainable Living Plan in 2010 to decouple environmental footprint from growth while increasing social impact. Patagonia encourages reducing consumption and instituted a repair program to extend product life, and is B Corp certified for meeting environmental standards.

1. 3 Environmentally
Friendly Companies
Donald Liss

2. Overview
While there are many organizations that focus
on protecting the environment, it’s also
important that more businesses focus on
environmentally-friendly practices.
Fortunately, a number of companies do care
about sustainability and attempt to be as green
as possible.
This presentation looks at three companies
that should be commended for their attempts
to become more sustainable.

3. IKEA
IKEA sells more furniture than any other
company on the planet.
Fortunately, the company understands how
important sustainability is to their continued
success.
On the People & Planet section of their website,
the company states that it is “working towards
100% renewable energy – producing as much
as we consume in our operations – and
sourcing all of our wood from more sustainable
sources by 2020” (People & Planet).
Additionally, the company sources all of its
cotton from suppliers that follow Better Cotton
standards, and many of its stores utilize solar
panels.

4. Unilever
Unilever is a consumer goods company that
sells its products all over the globe.
In 2010 the company adopted a Sustainable
Living Plan.
Unilever says that the Sustainable Living Plan
is “our blueprint for achieving our vision to
grow our business, whilst decoupling our
environmental footprint from our growth and
increasing our positive social impact”
(Sustainable Living).
Since first adopting the plan the company has
seen success with reducing waste.
In fact, CEO Paul Polman was awarded the
2015 Champion of the Earth Award by the
United Nations.

5. Patagonia
Patagonia is a popular clothing retailer
headquartered in California.
The company is very concerned about the
environment and consumer’s habits.
In the past, it has released ads that actually
urge people to refrain from buying things they
don’t need, and this includes Patagonia
products.
Patagonia also instituted a repair program so
that customers can get extended use out of
their products instead of buying additional
items.
The company is B Corp certified which means
that an outside organization (B Lab) assess its
performance to ensure it meets a certain level
of environmental performance.