World’s biggest furniture brand, IKEA has said that its annual carbon emissions fell 5% in the last fiscal year as part of continued efforts to boost renewable energy use and make its products more energy efficient after it set a target to be climate positive by 2030.
To show it was on track to meet its target, it said that emissions in the entire value chain which includes sourcing for raw material production to customers’ use and disposal of products, was estimated to total 25.8 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in the 12 months through August 2022, against an upwardly revised 27.2 million tonnes in the 2021 fiscal year.
Jon Abrahamsson Ring, chief executive of the Inter IKEA Group which owns the IKEA brand, said that the development of a more energy-efficient LED bulb range called “Solhetta” was one of the main drivers of the reduction that the company recorded in its emissions while helping suppliers to use more renewable energy in countries such as China through getting them discounted loans and framework agreements to increase their access to clean power also contributed to the emissions cut.
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Inter IKEA acts as a franchisor to IKEA store owners and is in charge of supply. Ring said that retail sales volumes did not increase in the fiscal year 2022 as IKEA struggled to meet demand due to supply shortages. Retail sales were up on the back of price hikes, to 44.6 billion euros.
Ingka Group, which owns most IKEA stores worldwide, reduced its own emissions by 23% to 455,014 tonnes of CO2 equivalent. The store owner’s emission reduction was also achieved by using more renewable energy.
Story was adapted from Reuters.
