IKEA stores sell renewable energy to households in Sweden
What: The iconic furniture store introduced the opportunity to purchase renewable energy for consumers starting in their home market Sweden as of September 2021. After installing solar panels for all of their locations to produce the renewable energy to sell to all of their neighboring communities.
Why is it important: The furniture store has found an innovative solution that can provide clean renewable energy to their consumers while also making a profit.
Ikea has set out to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to as low as possible from all ends of the supply chain from the raw material production to customers' disposal of their furniture by 2030.
The sustainability team at Ikea has discovered that there is a link between their climate footprint and their consumers. Around 20% of their total carbon footprint is associated to the customer usage of their products.
Their innovative solution to lower their total climate footprint while also turning a profit offers the opportunity for consumers to purchase their own solar panels to manufacture their own energy, or alternatively become a part of their renewable energy service. Upon buying the solar panels they are able to monitor and track their usage and consumers can even sell back their unused energy.