Ikea plans to get 100 percent of its power from clean sources by 2020, part of a big, new sustainability plan backed by a $2.4 billion investment.
From solar and wind farms to delivery trucks and products on the shelves, this is a strategy the Swedish home furnishing company started years ago, but will now be ramping up.
The Guardian reports: “The People and Planet Positive plan is designed to protect the company from price shocks and tap into customers’ desire for a greener lifestyle.”
I’m really happy for you, Ikea, and I’ma let you finish, but promoting cheap particleboard furniture that falls apart is not a big-picture sustainable business strategy, even if that particleboard comes from renewable sources.
In terms of resources, Ikea has committed to recycling 90 per cent of store waste and making its 10,000 strong product line more sustainable by ensuring all main home furnishing materials, including packaging, are renewable, recyclable or recycled.
For example, it now plans to use 100 percent cotton certified by the Better Cotton Initiative, which uses half the water and pesticides of most cotton production, and buy 10 million cubic metres of certified sustainable wood.
To my mind, Ikea has always been a bastion of renewable resources. When I was in college, at the end of each year students would take to the streets and light their derelict KLIPPAN sofas and EKTORP armchairs in celebratory bonfires — and then go out and get new ones in the fall. That counts, right?
