Ikea Almost Complete on $723M Sustainable Project

DELFT, NETHERLANDS-Locally based retailer Ikea is nearly complete with its $723 million plan to invest in renewable energy efforts at its stores, including solar panels on roofs, geothermal heating and even wind farm purchases. The company has been on a whirlwind the past two months installing solar panels on US stores, and just completed the installation on the two Chicago-area locations this week.

The furniture company has more than 330 Ikea stores in 40 countries, including 39 stores and five distribution centers in the United States. A company spokesman tells GlobeSt.com that the Chicago installations are the 24^th and 25^th solar roofs for the US stores, with more completions planned by January. He says 39 of the company’s 44 properties, including four of the five distribution centers, will have solar roofs by 2013.