IKEA has launched an international carpool trial
IKEA has launched an international carpool programme in collaboration with Liftango to accelerate its sustainability goals. The company aims to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the total value chain by 50% by 2030.
The carpool trial (one of the largest of its kind) will begin this month across three continents including Europe, North America and South East Asia, encouraging employees to adapt to new mobility solutions through a customized app.
The app, dubbed Ride2Work, has been developed by global carpooling technology provider Liftango, which aims to reduce the number of cars on the road by collaborating with companies pursuing zero-emission goals.
According to IKEA, the ride-sharing app is an answer to providing safe and sustainable commuting alternatives. At the same time, many employees are still hesitant about using public transport in the aftermath of the pandemic. The company says that commuting through carpooling to stores will give employees peace of mind and strengthen sustainability efforts through ride-sharing.
Ride2Work trials will begin in stores across Italy, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Canada and Australia, gradually expanding to other countries worldwide. IKEA believes the ride-sharing programme will help reduce the company's carbon footprint while increasing the health and morale of employees.
The Ride2Work app will be essential in increasing employees' self-awareness about their CO2 footprint. Employees can monitor their positive impact on the environment by monitoring CO2 reduction, and the distance travelled. The green effort can also be boosted by planting trees and tracing their impact on reducing CO2 emissions. Ride2Work also reminds Covid-19 safety requirements with Covid-19 contact tracing to ensure safety among IKEA employees.
After the successful pilot process, IKEA hopes to apply the carpooling programme to more than 500 stores globally.
Moving to MaaS
IKEA is working hard on a new mobility programme to reach sustainability goals.
Barbara Szanto, Global Category Manager at IKEA, told Fleet Europe last year that the company wants to establish new mobility services and move towards a Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) on-demand in the long run. Under this strategy, IKEA has already converted 10% of the passenger fleet cars to electric vehicles (EVs), while the last-mile delivery services in China are all-electric.
Collaboration with Liftango appears to be a move to eliminate the most significant challenge Szanto mentioned to Fleet Europe: The non-availability of integrated solutions to help move on with the international agenda. The carpooling programme emerges as an apparent move to reduce the carbon footprint of 166,000 global co-workers in the long-term, while IKEA is already revising its car policy, according to Szanto.
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