IKEA undertakes two million shipments a year and 4.3% of its total value chain climate footprint comes from product transport. One of its top priorities is to reduce carbon emissions from every product transport by an average of 70% by 2030 compared to 2017. A key initiative to achieve this goal is to shift transportation from road to intermodal, such as rail, over longer distances.
In close collaboration with the transport service provider KLOG, the logistics service provider CFL multimodal, fashion retailer Inditex and IKEA, an intermodal block train that runs once per week on the Poland-Spain-Poland corridor was launched in October 2022.
For IKEA, the estimated results of using the block train and intermodal solutions instead of road transportation are a reduction of 4,500 trucks and lowered CO2 emissions by 5,100 tons per year.
“Only by working together with our partners can we transform the transport industry and increase the intermodal share in the European railway network,” said Dariusz Mroczek, category area transport manager, IKEA Supply Chain Operations. “IKEA transports big volumes from Poland to Spain, and Inditex has big volumes going from Spain to Poland, consequently being able to fill the train in both directions is essential to reduce carbon emissions”.
The trucks replaced with the block train are still needed for the shorter distances, from IKEA suppliers to the train terminal and from the train terminal to the IKEA stores or distribution centers in Spain.
“This joint project with IKEA is a good example of how we understand the commitment to reduce our environmental impact, boosting collaborative solutions with suitable partners to enhance the achieved scope. This specific development of inland logistics enables us to move towards our decarbonization goal while keeping the agility and flexibility that features our business model,” added Abel López Cernadas, head of import, export, and transport at Inditex.