Ikea reaches energy targets early

Ingka Group, the owner of the majority of Ikea stores, says it will produce as much renewable energy as it consumes by the end of this year and achieve its own target a year earlier than originally planned.

Carbon positive

Over the past decade, Ingka Group has invested 2.5 billion euros in wind farms, solar panels at its stores and warehouses, and most recently in its first off-site solar parks. This week, the company took a 49 % stake in two American solar parks, which will become operational over the next few months, press agency Reuters has learned.

CEO Jesper Brodin also announced that they will continue to invest in wind and solar parks: “Being climate smart is not an added cost. It’s actually smart business and what the business model of the future will look like … Everything around fossil fuels and daft use of resources will be expensive.” By 2030, Ikea has claimed it will be carbon positive, which means that the Swedish furniture giant wants to prevent the emission of more greenhouse gases than those for which it is responsible itself.

Ikea’s timing in this is, of course, no coincidence: many large companies are taking advantage of the climate summit in New York to highlight their climate efforts and set out their plans for the future, including Google, Amazon and Mars to name but a few. In this way, they hope to build up a measure of goodwill in public opinion.