September 24, 2013
Dear Clients, Friends and Colleagues,
Fall is finally upon us and this week, Climate Week NYC 2013, we applaud IKEA, the global furniture retailer headquartered in Sweden, for the steps it is taking to achieve its big, hairy, audacious goal of 100% energy independence by 2020. IKEA's Chief Sustainability Officer is in New York this week participating in the Climate Week conversations, along with Virgin's Richard Branson, myself and other assorted climate change solution pioneers.
IKEA Walks the Energy Independence Walk
|
Image: Courtesy of Trevi Group
|
Last week IKEA announced that its 359,000 square foot store under construction in Merriam, Kansas, will be its second U.S. store to use a geothermal system for heating and cooling. IKEA has incorporated geothermal systems into 50 of its 340 stores worldwide, including its Denver-area store in Centennial, Colorado, which opened in 2011.
The Merriam, Kansas, store will incorporate a heat pump system that involves drilling 180 boreholes (six inches in diameter and 600 feet deep) under the parking lot on its 19 acre parcel. Pipes will be placed into the holes, forming "an underground network of loops for circulating 36,000 gallons of heat-transferring liquid connected to 64 forced-air heat pumps to cool and heat the store."
|