A White Knight For Green Buildings  

Cleantech.com has a report on Ikea's move into green buildings - Shopping for cleantech at Ikea. More at GreenTech media.

The furniture giant plans to invest €50 million in cleantech startups, with the goal of eventually selling solar panels, smart meters and other technology in its stores.

Sweden's Ikea may need to super-size its shopping carts. The furniture retailer unveiled an investment group today to put €50 million into cleantech startups over the next five years, with the eventual goal of seeing solar panels and other clean technologies on sale in its stores or used by Ikea suppliers.

Ikea GreenTech plans to focus on five areas — solar panels, alternative light sources, product materials, energy efficiency, and water saving and purification. The group said the investments will be made in companies that offer commercial prospects within a four to five year horizon. ...

Ikea started operating in Sweden in 1943 and has 118,000 employees, but Ikea GreenTech, located in Lund, in southern Sweden, was only formed about eight months ago and currently has four people on staff.

"Within one or two years I think we'll be between eight and 10," said Stenebo.

In addition to selling housewares, Ikea also sells houses, and there could be an opportunity to integrate the clean technologies in houses from the ground up.

Last year, Ikea introduced its pre-fab homes in the U.K. (see Free pencil and tape measure with every house). The homes are aimed at first time, low income buyers, and are sold along with a plot of land.

Ikea's pre-fabs were started in Sweden in the 1990s. The U.K. houses have already been designed to be ecologically friendly, using renewable materials in the construction, and solar and geothermal for power and heat.

But the startups will need to make it to market before they can make it to pre-fab. "Our first focus is what we sell in the stores and what our customers need," said Stenebo.

Different products could show up in different stores, depending on where a store is located. "It's quite natural that, for instance, solar panels are more interesting to Spaniards and Californians and so forth than they would be to Swedes." ...

Start measuring now for your Skär solar panels, Hörup LEDs, and Alsvik water purification system.