IKEA to sell solar panels?
IKEA plans to pour $77 million into clean-technology start-ups within the next five years and could add "green" goods such as solar panels to its inventory, according to Cleantech Group.
The four-person, 50 million euro IKEA GreenTech fund has been operating for eight months, the report said. And it could invest in up to 10 fledgling companies in the next few years, perhaps first in Europe, where IKEA rings up about 82 percent of its sales.
Efforts to commercialize new and affordable green technologies within several years could lead to IKEA selling the resulting products among its growing collection of stores, currently 283 in more than 30 nations. The goods reportedly would relate to energy in the form of solar panels, efficiency meters, and lighting; as well as more sustainable materials, and water treatment and conservation.
In 2007, IKEA expanded sales of pre-fab, low-income, eco-friendly housing from Sweden into the United Kingdom. Could its catalog of 9,500 products someday add flat-packed, "smart" green homes available globally?
Given IKEA's sheer reach, an aggressive focus on green technologies might reshape the furnishings industry. For instance, green-business gurus credit Wal-Mart's controversial efforts to green its shelves and practices with shifting big-box stores and shoppers' tastes toward less toxic and wasteful products.
Among IKEA's latest moves in support of sustainability, by the fall, it will eliminate its checkout use of plastic bags, for which it began charging British customers about two years ago. More than 380 billion plastic bags are estimated to be trashed each year in the United States alone, polluting land and waterways with toxic chemicals.
In the early years of this decade, the modern-furnishings goliath pledged to phase out unhealthy formaldehyde and PVC in its core products, and to stock wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.
Its Swedish stores use mostly renewable energy. Some of the 18,000 staff members use hybrid cars or bicycles. IKEA pledged to carry organic consumables, including coffee, jam, and schnapps within the year. But a nagging question remains: would solar panels from IKEA require an Allen wrench?
Ikea should stop selling these and use on fluorescent or led.
Incandescent lighting is warm and inviting. Fluorescent lighting is downright annoying and I do not tolerate it in my work or living environments.
LEDs are better, but still cold. They are not the lighting panacea everyone makes them out to be - there's more work to be done here folks.
LCD TV for example produce so much emission it makes more sense that when consumer uses it, it is really energy saving.
And cars? Ages past by and yet, cars tries to be greener but they still emit emissions. CNG and hydrogen may be a good thing, but just when will they mass produce and force everyone to change to these types of vehicles? When the world has ended I presume, +6C climate change?
But can we all do not only to rely on IKEA or other commercial brands? Off electronics that are not in use, dim that spotlight to slightly below maximum if it can be adjusted, change that incandescent bulb in your lamps to an energy saving one, or if not mistaken, there are LED versions though they might burn a big hole in your pocket for now. But serious, if you want to save about getting cheap stuffs nowadays, then do not bother in trying to say 'Im making the world green' cause the enough isn't just enough. Planting more trees now may only do a small bit to reduce global climate problem; all lies in us, HUMANS.
LCD TV for example produce so much emission it makes more sense that when consumer uses it, it is really energy saving.
And cars? Ages past by and yet, cars tries to be greener but they still emit emissions. CNG and hydrogen may be a good thing, but just when will they mass produce and force everyone to change to these types of vehicles? When the world has ended I presume, +6C climate change?
But can we all do not only to rely on IKEA or other commercial brands? Off electronics that are not in use, dim that spotlight to slightly below maximum if it can be adjusted, change that incandescent bulb in your lamps to an energy saving one, or if not mistaken, there are LED versions though they might burn a big hole in your pocket for now. But serious, if you want to save about getting cheap stuffs nowadays, then do not bother in trying to say 'Im making the world green' cause the enough isn't just enough. Planting more trees now may only do a small bit to reduce global climate problem; all lies in us, HUMANS.
Seriously, however, even though climate change is a myth, we cannot ignore the pollution produced by the stuff we make, even "green" stuff. We don't need oil to make plastic, but yet it is still done anyway. Companies can use corn starch in packages instead of the Styrofoam peanuts. Think of how much landfill waste would be saved right there. When you make solar panels and hybrids you produce a ton of toxic emissions. And the list goes on. Even though climate change is a myth not supported by facts and reality, we must curb these toxic by-products. They aren't good for our health and our earth deserves better.
- by kieranmullen August 11, 2008 9:28 PM PDT
- First IKEA sells cheap particleboard furniture. Now they sell cheap, no name solar panels. Whoope! Does it come with a side of lead?
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