Ignore the picture. I'm going to go ahead and assume that Ikea isn't planning to use Nissan Leafs to achieve this, but the Swedish home furnishings giant is apparently planning a rather incredible feat of 25% electric vehicle home deliveries by 2020, initially targeting five prioritized inner cities (Amsterdam, Los Angeles, New York, Paris and Shanghai).
It's just one part of a broader commitment to sustainability that has already seen the company rethink its previous contributions to throwaway culture, cut back on meat sales and commit to 100% electric deliveries by 2025.
Crucially, the effort will also see the company flex its muscles in terms of influencing consumer and employee transportation choices—pledging to provide "access to charging stations for EVs across all IKEA Group touchpoints across 30 markets, such as stores, offices, and distribution centres by 2020."
Given that stores like Target are also pledging major investments in electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the next few years, and that electrification of road freight continues to march forward, I'm quite excited to see what the collective weight of corporate activism can achieve on transportation. While we environmentalists often (and sometimes rightly) like to rag on capitalism, it's hard to argue against the fact that corporations have played a major role in mainstreaming renewables and pushing back against anti-climate politics in the last decade.
Maybe we'll see a similar effort on our roads. I'm not sure I'll be counting on the big box stores to push the cycling agenda quite as strongly, though. We might be on our own on that one...
