Furniture retailer IKEA is working with partners on a project to deliver its products using a non-stop rail route in Europe covering a distance of around 2,000km.
The company belives that this ‘strengthens its position as an intermodal transport buyer, decreases the use of fossil fuels, and lowers its carbon footprint’.
IKEA and its partners – transport service provider KLOG, logistics service provider CFL multimodal, and fashion retailer Inditex – launched an intermodal block train in October 2022, running ‘once per week on the Poland-Spain-Poland corridor’.
Dariusz Mroczek, Category Area Transport Manager at IKEA Supply Chain Operations, explained: “IKEA transports big volumes from Poland to Spain, and Inditex has big volumes going from Spain to Poland, consequently being able to fill the train in both directions is essential to reduce carbon emissions”.
According to IKEA, switching from road transport to rail saved the need for 4,500 trucks and lowered its CO₂ emissions by an estimated 5,100 tons per year. The company says that its shift towards intermodal transport over longer distances is key to meeting its climate goals.
By 2030, IKEA hopes to reduce carbon emissions from every product transport by an average of 70% compared to its 2017 figures.
