The world’s largest retailer of furniture and home accessories IKEA is expanding its portfolio. From September, it will offer Swedish households electricity supplies exclusively from renewable energy sources, Reuters reported. “We hope to be able to expand this offer to all the countries where we operate,” says Jonas Carlehed, who is responsible for sustainable development at the Swedish company. According to the company’s Czech representatives, the service should be available in the Czech Republic within four years.
The idea came from the Dutch company INGKA Holding, which owns most of the IKEA stores in the world, and its Swedish partner company Svea Solar, which produces solar panels for the furniture giant. It is Svea Solar that will buy electricity on the European energy exchange Nord Pool and then sell it to customers in IKEA stores at no extra charge.
Electricity is to come only from solar and wind farms, and households will pay a fixed monthly fee plus a variable rate given by consumption. Supplier solar and wind farms should be a maximum of five years old. The company believes that this will force authorities and companies to build new renewable sources.
Customers will also be able to manage the service and monitor consumption through a digital application. IKEA did not state the total investment in the project or the amount of the fee.
“We want electricity from renewable energy sources to be more accessible to all, even at a price,” the company said in a statement. “IKEA and its customers, partners, and associates want to build the world’s largest renewable energy movement to help fight climate change together,” said the furniture giant.
“In the Czechia, Hungary, and Slovakia, we would like to offer customers the opportunity to purchase affordable and certified electricity from renewable sources since 2025. But we are still working on project details,” adds Barbora Geršlová, IKEA Sustainability Manager for Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia.
IKEA has previously committed to significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, and Carlehed’s sale of clean electricity will make a significant contribution to achieving this goal. “About 20 percent of IKEA’s total carbon footprint is from customers using appliances ranging from appliances to lighting to electronics,” explains Carlehed.
IKEA operates 445 stores in Europe, the United States, Asia, Africa, and Australia. It employs around 150,000 people. Last year, despite the pandemic, it achieved a profit of 11.7 billion euros, almost 300 billion crowns, which means only a slight decrease compared to the previous year. Last year, after seventy years, it also stopped publishing its legendary printed catalogs in the interest of the environment.