http://www.theglobeandmail.com/authors/shawn-mccarthy

Sweden’s IKEA AB is becoming a global leader in solar and wind development with a target of energy independence in 2020, part of the company’s overall strategy to confront, and even profit from, looming environmental challenges.

The big-box retailer – which brought the world assemble-yourself furniture – is equipping its stores and distribution centers with solar panels and purchasing wind farms around the world to reduce its carbon footprint. The company’s green-energy push is part of a multilayered corporate sustainability plan that aims to reduce its own reliance on fossil fuels and cut costs; to work through its supply chain to improve social and environmental conditions; and to provide customers with a broad range of low-cost products that save energy, save water and reduce household waste.

IKEA said it is taking environmentalism from a premium-price niche or a marketing gimmick to a core business strategy, one that anticipates growing pressure on the global environment and resources as billions of people are expected to climb above the poverty line and become consumers in coming decades. Investments will pay for themselves in five to eight years and will provide a long-term stream of zero-emission energy as governments deal with climate change through some sort of emissions regulations or carbon levies that will drive up energy costs.