Swedish furniture giant Ikea is no stranger to sustainability. It’s been leading the home furnishings world with a number of initiatives in recent years. Now it’s going head-to-head with online furniture resellers to promote secondhand shopping.
As-is online is a new service that takes the store’s popular as-is section and brings it online. Consumers can reserve the discontinued and returned items online and reserve them for pick-up at their local Ikea store.
The retailer says it launched the option as part of Earth Month. It’s also offering in-store sustainability events for the month as well as matching customer donations to the American Red Cross Disaster relief fund.
“This Earth Month marks an exciting time for Ikea U.S. as we continue to make sustainable attainable for the many people. As-is online joins our other services like Buy Back & Resell and the spare parts program that help our customers live a more sustainable life at home with a variety of ways to prolong the life of their furniture,” Javier Quiñones, CEO & Chief Sustainability Officer, Ikea U.S., said in a statement.
Ikea is extending an additional 25 percent on items purchased through the as-is program until April 23rd. The company also announced it’s expanding its Buy Back & Resell service to stores in Indiana, Florida, Nevada, Washington, and Connecticut.
Customers can also attend in-store sustainability events including workshops and a raffle for a Sustainable Home Kit prize package and other giveaways. The retailer is also offering deals and discounts on products that use sustainably sourced materials, are energy efficient, water saving, or promote a more sustainable lifestyle.
“Sustainability at Ikea does not end after Earth Month. From furniture to food, home delivery to assembly, and product design to investments, Ikea is transforming its business model to be circular and climate positive by 2030,” the company says.
In the past year, Ikea’s U.S. locations reduced waste with more than 2.2 million repackaged products and 3.1 million second-life products sold through the As-is department. The retailer also produced more than 53 million kWh of power from 218,392 solar modules.
Ikea says EV charging at stores is also a priority, and it has a goal of installing 500 public fast chargers and more than 300 fleet chargers in the coming years.
Last month, Ikea and Canopy announced a partnership aimed at keeping ancient and endangered forests out of the viscose supply for home textiles.
The announcement makes Ikea the first major retailer focused on the home textile and furnishing space to join CanopyStyle.
“At Ikea, we are guided by our forest agenda and want to ramp up our work to further enhance biodiversity, mitigate climate change and drive innovation to use wood in even smarter ways – as the pressure on the world’s forests continues to grow. In this endeavour, we are glad to work closely with Canopy and all of the retailers united through this initiative,” said Lena Bischoff, Material & Innovation Area Manager, Inter Ikea Group.
“The home textiles sector needs to step-up and ensure that the forest-derived textiles, like viscose and lyocell, only come from responsibly managed forests, and make a shift towards lower-impact alternatives.”
Nicole Rycroft, Canopy’s Executive Director, says the work with Ikea heralds “a new era” for the lower-carbon and forest-friendly sourcing of viscose for home products and furnishings. “It will allow all of us to sleep more comfortably with vital forests kept out of the supply and Next Gen alternatives scaled in our bed sheets and beyond.”
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