IKEA Presents Insights on Consumer Behavior and Climate Actions at COP24
At the UN Climate Change Conference COP24 in Katowice (2–14 December) the international home furnishing business IKEA is showcasing ways to enable and inspire people to live within the limits of the planet, and how to take climate action for a greener and a cleaner world.
A recent study commissioned by Ingka Group – the largest IKEA franchisee with 367 stores in 30 markets globally - together with GlobeScan shows that nearly 90% of all the 14,000 people surveyed would be willing to change their personal behavior to help tackle climate change. To be precise: they would do more if they knew how to act, had more support in taking these actions and saw a clearer link between personal actions and safeguarding the environment.
By adopting sustainable consumption patterns, individuals can directly contribute to the implementation of the Paris Climate Change Agreement, which aims to keep the global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The study “Climate Action Starts at Home” includes recommendations to mobilize greater climate action at home and guide effective communications on climate change, which can be used by businesses, policymakers, campaigners and media.
One concrete example of this will be on display in Katowice at COP24: In cooperation with the city of Katowice and other partners, IKEA is organizing a school contest under the motto “Climate Action Starts at School”. The goal is to engage local primary and secondary school students, their parents and teachers to work together for climate action and to promote the circular economy. The five finalists of the contest will be announced during Education Day at COP24 (December 13), where winning schools will present their projects.
How Ikea is Walking the Sustainability and Climate Action Talk
IKEA wants to make sustainable living a desirable choice that is affordable, attractive and accessible for as many people as possible. It is tackling climate change on all levels of its business. As part of its commitment to become climate positive by 2030, and go beyond IKEA, it aims to work with its more than 1,000 suppliers to convert their entire factories to 100% renewable energy, as well as address the substantial innovation needs in order to make sure all products it sells are designed and produced from the very beginning to be repurposed, repaired, reused, resold and recycled, and provide circular services supporting these flows.
“Materials, production and product use stand for more than half of the Ikea climate footprint. It is critical to transform towards renewable energy, as well as recycled and renewable materials”, said Andreas Ahrens, Head of Climate at Inter IKEA Group, the owner of the IKEA Concept and the worldwide IKEA franchisor.
Since 2015, IKEA only sells LED light bulbs in its lighting range, which use up to 85% less energy than incandescent bulbs, reducing the use of electricity drastically. Additionally, by 2025, Ingka Group aims for zero emissions home deliveries, and use 100% renewable electricity, heating and cooling.
IKEA has set the following key target to contribute to reaching the goals set under the Paris Agreement:
By 2030, reducing the absolute emissions from the total IKEA value chain by 15% (compared with 2016) – which translates into a reduction of 70% per product on average if you take into account the expected growth of the company.
By 2030, reduce the absolute greenhouse gas emissions from production by 80% compared to financial year 2016.
Ingka Group has set science-based targets to support the transformation:
Reducing emissions from stores and other operations by 80% in absolute terms by 2030.
Reducing emissions from customer and co-worker travel and customer deliveries by 50% in relative terms by 2030.
Ingka Group aims to generate more renewable energy than consumes by 2020, in 2017 generated equivalent of 73% of the energy used that year, through 441 wind turbines and 750,000 solar panels on its buildings around the world.
IKEA currently sells home solar panels in six markets - the UK, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Poland, Belgium and Germany - and aims to expand its clean energy services to customers in all 30 Ingka Group markets by 2025.
“We are committed to generating more renewable energy than we consume, and use only renewable electricity, heating and cooling in our buildings in an efficient way. At the same time, we would like to go beyond our buildings by enabling many people to join us in taking climate action at home. Through generating own cheaper energy with Home Solar, saving energy with efficient solutions and choosing products which are better for the planet”, says Karol Gobczyński, Climate & Energy Manager at Ingka Group.
