News and Furniture from a Tree

I've decided that the Saturday Guardian is enough tree for me every week. There's enough of it so that I can read it over the weekend and then drop it in the recycling box Sunday night.

I am concerned sometimes though with what I read in it ie. "Ikea is a charity."

When statements like this are made out of context it worries me that this is only the tip of the iceberg and that if I dig deeper I won't like what I find. I don't really want to have to research every statement of 'fact' from the paper to check its veracity. Unless its from the fiction section I want to be able to trust what I read.

Ikea is a charity.

I thought to myself, wow great, its ethically better than I thought. However I wasn't convinced. I checked on the internet. According to the Economist Ikea is...

"...an outfit that ingeniously exploits the quirks of different
jurisdictions to create a charity, dedicated to a somewhat banal cause, that is
not only the world's richest foundation, but is at the moment also one of its
least generous. The overall set-up of IKEA minimises tax and disclosure,
handsomely rewards the founding Kamprad family and makes IKEA immune to a
takeover. And if that seems too good to be true, it is: these arrangements are
extremely hard to undo."

Saying that I can't find a bad word about them otherwise. So is it a good company just taking advantage of loopholes to make money to do good?

I wish the Guardian had expanded on its statement. I also wish I was one of those people who would write into the Guardian asking them to expand on their statement.

2004 Guardian Article on Ikea Part I & Part II

Check out other companies ethics here or get some free trial reports on ethic score of products such soft drinks and the companies that sell them.