IKEA to Sell Only LED Lighting by 2016

IKEA sheds new light on home sustainability practices with a bold move to go 100% LED by 2016. In doing so it will become the first US home furnishing retailer to sell only LED lamps and luminaires.

Supporting the LED light revolution, IKEA will be converting its full lighting range to LED by 2016, meaning IKEA will sell only LED lighting products to enable millions of people to live a more sustainable life at home and save money on their energy bills. IKEA will be selling the LED lamps at the lowest price on the market, thus making it affordable for the many people. Additionally, IKEA is changing more than 1 million light sources inside the IKEA stores to LED and other more efficient lighting.

LED lighting consumes 85% less energy than incandescent bulbs and can last up to 20 times longer. But, in fact, only 27% of Americans know that LED bulbs last 20 years (source: Wakefield Research). Sustainability is a cornerstone of IKEA, which takes continuous steps to make its business more sustainable and, at the same time, makes it easier for customers to live a more sustainable life at home.

“LED is a light revolution. With household electricity bills continuing to rise rapidly and global energy consumption increasing, a small LED bulb can have a very big impact. It uses much less energy than a traditional bulb and brings a lot of home furnishing potential to the home. Building on our belief that everyone should be able to afford to live more sustainably at home, we will make sure our LED prices are the lowest on the market,” says Steve Howard, Chief Sustainability Officer, IKEA Group.

“WWF is aiming for a 100% renewable energy future. In order to move away from our dependency on fossil fuels, we need to take advantage of all opportunities. Almost 20% of global electricity consumption comes from lighting, so shifting lighting to LED technology is a cost-effective way to get change at scale. IKEA converting its lighting range to LED will have a real impact in reducing energy use in many households,” says Samantha Smith, leader of the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) Global Climate and Energy Initiative.

This LED initiative follows past IKEA US leadership actions such as the phase-out of plastic bags in 2007 and incandescent lamps in 2010.

“We are committed to enabling our coworkers and customers to live a more sustainable life at home. And changing to LED lights is a smart and cost effective way to be sustainable in our everyday lives. IKEA supports this to such a degree that we recently gave LED lights to every one of the 130,000 IKEA coworkers across the globe,” comments Mike Ward, IKEA US President.

Today, there is a wide range of LED lamps available at IKEA that enable customers to easily change incandescent to LED without changing the lamp base. LED lighting is, until now, one of the best-kept secrets in sustainable home furnishing:

  • If 1 million people switched one lamp each to LED, this would in terms of CO2 emissions correspond to taking almost 6700 cars off the road, or planting 17 million trees per year.
  • The total annual cost saving (including purchase price and energy consumption cost) of switching one incandescent 40W lamp to a corresponding LED lamp, is approximately $6.25 (5.3 Euro) on average.
  • LED lamps can last nearly 20 years. That’s about 20 times longer than a typical incandescent, 10 times longer than a typical halogen and twice as long as a typical CFL.
  • LED lamps use substantially less power than incandescents or CFLs. Replacing existing lighting with LEDs can save between 50% and 90% of lighting energy costs.
  • LEDs can be used almost anywhere – in any room in the house or in any business. LED replacements are already available for many lamp types and can fit virtually all of your existing fixtures.
  • A recently conducted survey (performed by YouGov for IKEA) of 6,000 consumers in China, Russia, Germany, UK, US and Sweden showed that many are not aware of the benefits of LED. However 60% express an interest in LED as an energy saver, especially as energy bills generally rise, and 20-25% of the electricity costs in the home come from lighting.
  • The U.S. Department of Energy has estimated that an increased adoption of LEDs over the next 15 years would:
    • Reduce electricity demands from lighting by 62 percent
    • Prevent 258 million metric tons of carbon emissions
    • Eliminate the need for 133 new power plants

About IKEA

IKEA, the world’s leading home furnishings company, was founded in 1943 in Sweden. Since then, IKEA, the Life Improvement Store has offered home furnishings and accessories of great design and quality with functional living solutions at everyday low prices. Currently there are more than 300 IKEA stores in 37 countries, including 50 in North America. IKEA has six distribution centers in North America. TIME Magazine (May 2009) listed IKEA as one of the top-eight most eco-conscious global companies. IKEA incorporates environmentally friendly efforts into day-to-day business and continuously supports initiatives that benefit causes such as children and the environment including UNICEF, Save the Children and American Forests.

Source: www.ikea.com