Meet the woman making Ikea more sustainable

Ikea encourages sustainable consumption habits for the 700 million people who visit its stores each year. It set a goal for this — that it measures — to reduce emissions for products used in customers’ homes by 70 percent by 2030, compared with a 2016 baseline. So far, it has managed a 52 percent cut.

The executive leading these strategies is Karen Pflug, chief sustainability officer at Ingka Group, which operates most Ikea stores. 

Her efforts include: 

• Selling products with lower carbon footprints
• Pushing plant-based foods 
• Trying out services for taking back, recycling and reusing unwanted items
• Guiding customers to make Ikea furniture last longer
• Experimenting with reusable packaging 

Pflug will talk about all this and more during the launch episode of Climate Pioneers, our live interview series featuring the most ambitious innovators working to mitigate the climate crisis in conversation with GreenBiz editor at large Heather Clancy. 

Join us at 10 a.m. ET April 23.