IKEA is known for being a stylish, innovative, and forward thinking company. Now, it is also an avid supporter of LED light bulbs. Just recently they have announced that they will no longer carry any other type of bulbs on their shelves other than LED light bulbs in order to use their worldwide standing to promote awareness of global warming. This means traditional incandescent lights, halogen, & compact florescent light bulbs will no longer be sold in their stores in order to make LEDs the new standard. By limiting the options to only LEDs in their stores, it will hopefully make LEDs more accessible to customers as well as make them the one and only choice for customers. Considering the fact that LEDs are more energy and cost efficient, customers will hopefully see this as a great move by IKEA, rather than a “lack of variety” in lighting choices. Steve Howard, chief sustainability office of IKEA said, “Some of these technologies have to be driven faster. People are concerned increasingly about climate change but also about household energy bills. So how can you try something that doesn’t take 15 years to develop in this space but takes 3 or 4 years?” – The answer is by only selling LEDs to customers. And that’s exactly what fueled this decision by IKEA.
IKEA wants to show the world just how serious they are about their overall sustainability efforts. Originally, IKEA planned on supporting and promoting compact fluorescent lights, but changed their minds to LED lighting once they realized how beneficial it will be to not only offer it as their only lighting options in their stores, but also to use LEDs themselves in order to reduce their stores energy consumption. Their overall goal is to produce as much renewable energy as the total it consumes by the year 2020. IKEA also said that they plan and expect that their determination in investing in renewable energy in the US will produce 4x more energy than it consumes in America alone.
Some may see this as a rather bold move on IKEA’s part. But they took into consideration quite a number of factors before embarking on this revolutionary way of promoting sustainable living. First, they realized that even though florescent bulbs were originally introduced as an alternative to traditional incandescent bulbs (which are now no longer sold in the US) and were far more affordable than LEDs, they were not satisfying customers. Many complained about the light quality, saying that the brightness was too harsh and took too long to turn on and off. Also, the price of LEDs have dramatically become more affordable thanks to government regulations to make them more accessable to the public.
Now, there really is no reason for customers to choose any other option over LEDs. They are cost efficient, energy efficient, more accessible, affordable, and have strong supporters like IKEA and Genesis BCS (just to name a few)! And let’s not forget that in doing your part in turning to using LEDs, you are doing your part in the global fight for sustainable energy.