IKEA joins 2040 ambition statement for zero-carbon shipping

20 / 10 / 2021

By Marwa Nassar - -

IKEA joins forces with several global companies by signing the 2040 ambition statement through the collaborative platform Cargo Owners for Zero Emission Vessels, facilitated by the Aspen Institute. The ambition statement makes it clear that global transport buyers want zero-carbon shipping, and rapidly accelerating decarbonizing efforts.

IKEA has approximately 2 million shipments per year and has both a responsibility and an opportunity to positively influence the climate agenda in the ocean transport industry. To develop, deploy and scale up solutions to decarbonize, close collaboration among stakeholders across the total value chain is crucial.

“We need to accelerate the transformation towards zero emission ocean shipping. By collaborating with like-minded partners, we can create strong movements”, says Elisabeth Munck af Rosenschöld Sustainability Manager Supply Chain Operations at Inter IKEA Group. “With this ambition statement, we want to demonstrate our determination to reach set targets and to instil confidence among all stakeholders on the direction of our common decarbonizing journey ahead.”

IKEA is committed to becoming climate positive by 2030 by reducing more greenhouse gas emissions than the value chain emits, while growing the IKEA business. Today, the transport of IKEA products from suppliers to warehouses and stores around the world accounts for approximately 5% of the total IKEA carbon footprint.

The target is to reduce the average carbon footprint from every transport by 70% by 2030, compared to the baseline year 2017. The roadmap to reach the ambitious 2030 milestone, consists of three parts; reducing the climate footprint by making every shipment as efficient as possible, replacing fossil fuels with sustainable, alternative fuels, and rethinking to integrating innovative technologies and fuels and new collaborations to accelerate decarbonizing solutions.

By signing the 2040 ambition statement through the collaborative platform Cargo Owners for Zero Emission Vessels, IKEA, together with the other signatories, are ready to do its part and purchase only zero emissions ocean transport services by 2040, call on policymakers around the world to take ambitious actions to advance the decarbonizing of the ocean industry and set more ambitious goals.