IKEA Australia releases 2017 sustainability report, highlights population pressures
IKEA’s 2017 sustainability report says Australia needs to build new cities in order to deal with population growth.
In the latest instalment of its People & Planet Positive series, the Swedish furniture giant revealed results of its survey asking whether Australia is prepared for a huge rise in urban population.
More than six in 10 respondents said they felt neither they nor the country as a whole was ready for such a demographic shift. The UN forecasts that by 2050, 22% of the world’s population will be aged over 60, double the proportion of 2012.
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The UN also forecasts that 70% of the world’s populace, set to hit 9.3bn by 2050, will be living in urban areas. For a country like Australia, which has always been seen as a sparsely populated land mass, it could represent a major shift in people’s ways of life.
IKEA believes more Australians will be living in smaller spaces in a more communal style, and is thus developing product lines to match this lifestyle.
IKEA Australia’s Country Manager Jan Gardberg said in his introductory note: “Our population is growing and resources are limited. The decisions we make today are pivotal to how we will live tomorrow, and we all need to work together if we want to live happy and healthy lives.”
