Furniture giant Ikea has said all of its home deliveries will be made by electric vehicles by 2025, part of a larger bid by the Swedish company to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions.
Speaking to Reuters at the news service’s IMPACT conference in London Monday (Oct. 3), Ikea CEO Jasper Brodin said some stores in cities have already gone fully electric for home deliveries, while others were working to create the necessary infrastructure.
Brodin acknowledged that the project may hit a few roadblocks in some areas.
“In some regions, maybe there will be some challenges where we need to push a bit harder on that, but basically already by 2025, customers should be able to get electrical from IKEA when it comes to deliveries,” he said.
See also: Sustainability: Retail’s Latest Feature
Ikea hopes to be climate positive — that is, to reduce more greenhouse gas than the company creates — by the end of the decade. Reuters noted that earlier this year, the retailer said it was on track to hit that goal as its yearly carbon emissions dropped 6% from pre-pandemic levels amid record sales.
Ikea was not immediately available for comment Monday.
The shift comes as the Generation Z and millennial consumers who are Ikea’s target market increasingly seek out companies that focus on sustainability.
Read more: Sustainability Key to Wooing Millennials, Gen Z Customers
According to data provided to PYMNTS earlier this year by U.K.-based FinTech firm Twig, nearly 60% of millennial and Gen Z consumers already consider the resale value of a new item at the time of purchase — and for more than 30% of these young shoppers, reselling old products to pay for new lifestyle goods has become their default shopping style.
For environmentally-conscious younger consumers, making a purchase with the guarantee that they will be able to resell that instantly at any point makes the purchase experience even more enticing, said Twig CEO Geri Culp.
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