Ikea now delivers furniture by boat and by electric car

In Paris, Ikea would like to deliver furniture by boat and electric vehicle in the future. This should make the deliveries more environmentally friendly and relieve the city’s traffic.

Since this month, Parisians have had their Ikea furniture delivered by boat and electric vehicle. With this, the Swedish furniture store wants to break new ground in transport and reduce its CO2 footprint.

To the apartment: This is how Ikea wants to deliver furniture more sustainably

With the increase in online orders, deliveries at Ikea in Paris are also increasing, according to the furniture store. In order to make this more sustainable, the deliveries will no longer arrive by truck, but by boat and electric vehicles.

In the first step, the furniture is transported from the warehouse in Gennevilliers to Paris by ship across the river Seine. Special modular boxes from the logistics company Box2Home are used.

Three of these aluminum boxes, which according to Box2Home are seven times lighter than comparable steel boxes, form a container. This can in turn be separated into individual modules on arrival at the Paris port of Haropa Port and, in the second step, be driven more easily with electric vehicles for the last mile to the customer.

300,000 fewer truck kilometers per year

Tests for this river transport started this summer. Box2Home already initiated regular operation in September and was apparently able to convince Ikea of ​​the system. With the new transport route, the aim is to act more sustainably, the furniture store writes in a letter press release.

With this new process, Ikea comes closer to its goal of reducing the environmental footprint of its operation.

According to scientific studies, river transport causes on average namely five times less CO2 than road transport. This has a major impact on the environment, Ikea tells BASIC thinking.

The use of the Seine will reduce the number of truck kilometers between Gennevilliers and Paris by around 300,000 kilometers per year.

That would not only relieve the environment, but also traffic. However, there is still room for improvement. The Seine boats for the Ikea deliveries are still powered by fossil fuels. However, the goal is to operate the boats fully electrically in the future, the company asserts.

Ikea has been criticized for cutting down trees

In the past, Ikea has tried to make its operations more sustainable with various initiatives. A few months ago, the company invested millions in its own range of photovoltaics in Germany and Spain. And in India, the furniture chain delivers by electric rickshaw.

But environmentalists have also repeatedly criticized the company. So stand among other things allegations in the roomthat the furniture chain in Romania is involved in the illegal deforestation of protected primary forest. IKEA denies the accusations.

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