IKEA recently announced this week that it was on track to become climate positive by 2030 since its annual carbon emissions fell 6% from pre-pandemic levels despite record sales, writes Anna Ringstrom for Reuters.

According to brand owner Inter IKEA, value chain emissions – meaning everything produced from raw material production to customers’ use and disposal of products – have been the biggest source of the brand’s CO2 emissions due to the expanding climate footprint of materials such as wood, plastics, and paper-based materials.

Although IKEA’s climate footprint from materials has kept expanding, the primary cause for the drop in overall emissions has mainly come from the use of more renewable energy sources across its operations.

In addition, IKEA has seen a larger increase in sales of energy-efficient light bulbs and plant-based food.

It’s uncertain whether emissions will continue to fall in 2022. Much of that will depend on the sales performance of the aforementioned products along with the speedy switch to renewable energy in IKEA’s production.

But Inter IKEA CEO Jon Abrahamsson remains confident the company can reach its goal of becoming climate positive by 2030.

“We have managed to do a third of what our ambition is for 2030 so we are well on track,” he said. “Then there are big challenges ahead and we need to put all our energy and efforts into securing that we continue on a positive trend towards this goal.”

Read more about IKEA’s climate footprint at Reuters.