Greenbiz.com reports that over the next five years, IKEA will invest some USD 77 million in clean technology start-ups specialising in green tech products and solar panels. The latest plan stems from IKEA Greentech group, a four-member corporate collaboration whose aim is to invest in long-term clean energy solutions.
IKEA Greentech’s purpose is to find and invest in useful innovations that can be incorporated into existing IKEA stores and appeal to average home décor customers. The latest move by IKEA is intended to reflect its ethos of intertwining environmental responsibility with commercial profitability.
Johan Stenebo, IKEA Greentech’s managing director, will speak later this year at Cleantech Scandinavia’s yearly conference. His focus will be to explain IKEA’s strategies for clean technology expansion and the importance of organisations working together for mutual benefit.
IKEA will stop providing plastic shopping bags to its US customers as of October 2008, a program which it has been slowly integrating over the past months around the globe. IKEA has the goal of reducing its use of plastic bags from 70 million to 35 million within one year in the US. It will charge 5 cents for each plastic bag to encourage reduction, and offer reusable bags for 59 cents each. This program in the US is similar to efforts in Australia and the UK, where plastic bags have already been completely eliminated from IKEA stores.