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IKEA is opening its first second-hand store

Photo credit: blinow61 - Getty Images
Photo credit: blinow61 - Getty Images

From House Beautiful

IKEA is opening its first second-hand store in Sweden later this year.

The Swedish retailer will be selling refurbished furniture in the brick-and-mortar store, conveniently located in the ReTuna shopping mall in Eskilstuna, which is the world's first second-hand shopping centre.

The initiative is part of IKEA's efforts to become a fully circular business by 2030. The second-hand store, which is being piloted and will be re-evaluated regularly, will stock IKEA furniture and home furnishings that have been damaged and repaired from a nearby store.

'If we are going to reach our sustainability goals we need to challenge ourselves and test our ideas in practice,' Jonas Carlehed, Ikea Sweden's sustainability director said in a statement via The Local.

In 2019, IKEA announced its first pilot project in Switzerland, enabling customers to rent furniture as part of its circular model.

Photo credit: Mats Ekdahl/Ikea
Photo credit: Mats Ekdahl/Ikea

The company has previously addressed concerns that its affordable, flat-pack business model leads to overconsumption and waste. In the IKEA Group Sustainability Strategy for 2020, the retailer said: 'As IKEA grows, we want to strengthen our positive impact and help meet the needs and aspirations of more families and households around the world.

'By 2020, around 500 IKEA Group stores will welcome an estimated 1.5 billion visitors per year, employ more than 200,000 co-workers, potentially generating 45-50 billion euro in turnover. However, while that growth brings many great opportunities, if we continue with a business as usual approach, our use of wood will almost double and our carbon emissions – across the value chain from raw material production to product end-of-life – will increase from today’s 30 million tons to 50-60 million tons.'

IKEA's sustainability strategy includes inspiring and enabling millions of customers to live a more sustainable life at home; striving for resource and energy independence; and taking a lead in creating a better life for the people and communities impacted by its business.

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