By Anders Lorenzen

IKEA, the popular Swedish furniture giant, are no stranger to pushing sustainability in their business models. 

And now in their latest green move, they’re branching out into energy as they’re to sell renewable energy to households, starting at home in Sweden.

Affordable renewable electricity

Ingka Group, which is the owner of most IKEA stores globally, said households would be able to buy affordable renewable electricity from solar and wind parks and track the usage through an app.

Svear Solar, a partner of Ingka who currently produces solar panels for IKEA, will purchase the electricity on the Nordic power exchange called Nord Pool and resell without surcharge. Households will then pay a fixed monthly fee plus a variable rate.

In addition, the furniture company also sells solar panels for households in 11 markets and buyers would, via the app, be able to track their own production and sell back the surplus electricity.

Building the biggest renewable energy movement

In a statement the company said: “IKEA wants to build the biggest renewable energy movement together with co-workers, customers and partners around the world, to help tackle climate change together. We want to make electricity from sustainable sources more accessible and affordable for all”

Ingka shed some light on the plan, revealing that their plan to offer electricity from solar and wind parks originated around five years ago, and they saw it as a way to encourage the building of more renewable energy parks.

IKEA had previously announced that they wanted to be ‘climate positive’ which means, by 2030, reducing emissions by more than is emitted by the whole IKEA value chain today.

The company believes that this new strategy will contribute to bringing down its carbon footprint.