Furniture giant IKEA is to help its customers go green and save money through a new partnership with the Big Clean Switch.
Starting today, IKEA customers can declare their interest in going green, with those that doing so benefitting from an exclusive 100% renewable power tariff.
IKEA has said the deal could save a typical UK household as much as £300 a year while simultaneously enabling them to source their power from renewables.
The offers works by utilising the Big Clean Switch’s collective switching model. It aggregates customers that express an interest in switching then invites existing suppliers to bid for that pool of consumers, often securing more beneficial rates.
The Big Clean Switch’s pool of suppliers includes Bulb, Bristol Energy, Ecotricity, Good Energy, Octopus Energy and Tonik.
Pre-registration for the switch opened this morning (20 February 2018). Customers who register will then be told on 6 March what the prospective tariffs will be.
IKEA will receive commission for each customer that follows through with the switch, however IKEA has confirmed these payments will be diverted to support local community initiatives.
Hege Sæbjørnsen, sustainability manager at IKEA UK, said the company’s commitment to sustainability goes “beyond minimising the impact” of its own operations.
“We want to provide our customers with innovative solutions that will help them live a more sustainable life at home and save money in the short and long-term. By partnering with the Big Clean Switch, we hope to make switching to renewable electricity simple, accessible and affordable to everyone,” she said.
While the launch falls someway short of IKEA entering the UK energy supply market, as has been teased in the past, it is further testament of the company’s sustainability credentials. Last year IKEA began selling solar and storage solutions to its customers both online and instore, and Sæbjørnsen said IKEA was making strong progress towards its goal of producing as much energy as it consumes by 2020.
“Last year in the UK, we generated renewable energy equivalent to 41% of the energy we used. We have also installed solar panels on all new stores and the majority of our existing stores as part of our investment in renewables,” she said.
