NEW YORK CITY-IKEA Brooklyn announced yesterday that the solar system on its roof is up and running. The array occupies 19,000 square feet and consists of a total of 1,104 panels – the equivalent of taking 32.5 cars off of the road. It will generate 240,00 kWh of electricity annually for the store.

John McGettrick, co-chair of the Red Hook Civic Association, thinks that this won’t amount to much and that the company would do better to pursue other initiatives. “It’s a very small step in the right direction but it in no way compensates for the incredible increase in pollution that the facility brings to the community,” he tells GlobeSt.com. “It would be helpful if they had their supplies delivered by water – that would dramatically reduce the amount of truck traffic and pollution.”

An IKEA spokeswoman tells GlobeSt.com that some freight does arrive to the Elizabeth, New Jersey store by water, but only because it’s a distribution hub. IKEA owns the majority of the land at the Industrial Park at Elizabeth, adjacent to the Newark/Elizabeth Marine Terminal, having bought it from the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey.