STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Ingka Group, the owner of most IKEA stores, plans 600 million euros ($712 million) in sustainability-related investments over the next 12 months as the world’s biggest furniture brand aims to be climate positive throughout its value chain by 2030.
The plan is to spend a third on renewable energy, a third on stakes in innovative start-ups, and a third on making its stores and warehouses more sustainable, CFO Juvencio Maeztu told Reuters.
IKEA is made up of several companies. Ingka Group, a franchisee to Inter IKEA, besides its retail operations also invests in start-ups, renewable energy, forests and real estate.
IKEA’s target to reduce more greenhouse gas emissions than it emits by 2030 covers the entire value chain from the production of raw materials and products to stores through to customers’ use and disposal.
Over the past decade Ingka Group has spent 3.2 billion euros, or on average around 300 million a year, sustainability related investments, a spokeswoman said.
“As the company takes the next step, it will focus on investing in companies and solutions that have a direct impact towards the Paris Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals,” Ingka Group said in a statement.
In the fiscal year through Aug. 2019, emissions shrank for the first time, by 4% to 25 million tonnes CO2 equivalents.
To reach the 2030 target, emissions need to come down to around 21 million tonnes.
Maeztu said IKEA would be able to tell in a couple of months whether emissions shrank in the fiscal year which ended earlier this week.
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(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom; editing by Jason Neely)
