Your billy bookcase should have multiple lives, says IKEA sustainability chief

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🗞️ Driving the news: IKEA is piloting "IKEA Preowned," a marketplace in Madrid and Oslo where customers can buy and sell secondhand IKEA furniture, with plans for a global rollout
• The platform aims to encourage circularity, a core element in IKEA’s strategy to reduce its climate footprint, which saw a 22% decrease from its 2016 baseline
• Customers can opt to receive payment in IKEA credit, with a 15% bonus incentive

🔭 The context: With circularity as a top priority, IKEA’s strategy includes using only renewable or recycled materials and promoting repairs through spare part availability
• Ingka Group’s CSO Karen Pflug emphasizes that affordability and sustainability can go hand in hand, encouraging customers to keep furniture in use longer through resale, repairs, and recycling

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Circularity in retail could significantly reduce emissions and waste, a critical step as IKEA aims to halve its emissions by 2030
• Extending product life cycles helps lessen environmental impact, especially as over 99% of IKEA’s emissions stem from its supply chain and product end of life

⏭️ What's next: If successful, IKEA Preowned may expand globally, reinforcing the company’s position in the growing secondhand market, currently accounting for around 6.5% of home furnishings
• IKEA is also working to make at least one-third of its wood recycled by 2030, a move that could establish a new industry standard

💬 One quote: “The best thing you can do is recycle at the very end of life. Before that, things should have multiple lives,” - Karen Pflug, CSO of Ingka Group

📈 One stat: IKEA’s emissions dropped by 22% from its 2016 baseline, achieving a 12% reduction just in the last year

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