Ikea's Live Oak, Texas store has earned the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification Gold level from the US Green Building Council (USGBC). LEED is the most widely used sustainable buildings rating system in the world and provides a framework for healthy, highly efficient, and cost-saving sustainable buildings.
The LEED certification program assesses building design and construction in terms of energy efficiency, water usage, air quality, choice of building materials, and environmental factors like access to public transportation and responsible land use. Buildings are awarded points for these categories based on the extent that various sustainable strategies are achieved.
Some of the building and site features incorporated into the Live Oak store that helped it achieve LEED Gold status include:
Other Ikea LEED-certified buildings in the U.S. include: Ikea Brooklyn, Ikea West Chester, Ikea Portland, Ikea Orlando, Ikea Stoughton, Ikea Oak Creek, the Joliet distribution center, and the US Service Office.
The retail company has also been cutting waste recently. In 2019, Ikea Retail US announced plans to implement returns optimization technology made by Optoro in 10 distribution centers, 50 retail stores, and their customer support center in the United States. The retailer expects that the platform will help reduce waste from its reverse supply chain.
Returns create costly financial and environmental problems, Ikea Retail US says. Citing data from the National Retail Federation, the retailer noted that $400 billion in goods are returned every year in the US. “Historically, many returns end up in landfills and the transportation of these goods contributes to retail’s carbon footprint,” the retailer said.