Swedish furniture giant IKEA is committing to energy independence in its stores worldwide, announcing today that it would strive to produce as much energy as it consumes as a corporation by 2020. Stores and warehouses will be outfitted with solar panels, while the company will also make new investments in wind farms that it hopes will make it an energy neutral enterprise.
This actually might not be as huge an overhaul as it sounds for the company. 34 of its 38 stores in the U.S. already have some solar panels installed, and it’s the proud owner of 6 wind farms throughout Europe, which means that this new policy is actually just the old policy with a little more muscle and a press conference behind it. That doesn’t make it a bad policy. It’s a noble endeavor, and one that makes us proud of where just about all of our furniture comes from. It also doesn’t make it anything to lose your mind over, because, hey, it was going to happen at some point anyway.
IKEA isn’t just working toward an energy independent future, but is trying to shrink its overall impact — or, the cynic in us says, be perceived as shrinking its overall impact. The company has also announced that it will work to plant enough trees to replace the wood it reduces to chips and mashes up as particle board in its almost inconceivably many products, and purchase more of its raw materials from lumber producers practicing sustainable forestry. No word on whether they’ll start sowing more of whatever plant produces those little metal dowels that hold all the bookcases together, and man, are we going to be screwed when that thing goes extinct. Every bookcase I own is already a shelf short because I’m missing one of those things.
Because we never miss a chance to drop a little Jonathan Coulton into everyone’s life, we’ll leave you with the unofficial anthem of our couch, dinner table, and bookcase.
(via PhysOrg)
- Full Disclosure: I can’t go on a trip to IKEA without feeling like I need a beer
- Come, play the totally underrated IKEA name matching game
- IKEA Hacking, sport of the future
