Vancouver Fall Home Show: Ikea Keeps Furniture Out Of Landfill

Article content

Visitors to the Fall Show at Vancouver Home You will have the opportunity to learn about Ikea’s commitment to becoming a circular business by 2030 through sustainability and zero waste programs in which the company’s customers will play a key role.

Article content

Ikea wants to inspire people to live more sustainably through initiatives like its Sell-Back Program, part of its positive People + Planet strategy, says Aideen Butler, local marketing specialist at Ikea Canada.

The Sell-Back program allows customers to request the sale of their little-used Ikea products from the retailer in exchange for a store credit. Ikea, in turn, will give the product a second life through resale or donation.

“This is one way we can connect customers with new ways to extend the life of their Ikea products,” says Aideen Butler, local marketing specialist for Ikea Canada.

The service is a benefit of the Family loyalty program– Home furnishings shipped through the Sell-Back Program are returned to the store assembled and sold assembled in the store’s circle centers. The As-Is department at the company’s Coquitlam store has been repurposed to create the central space, while renovations for the Richmond store’s Circular Hub are in progress and scheduled to be completed in the coming weeks.

Article content

In addition to the Circular Hub sales area, staff working on furniture for resale and any items that have arrived in the store and need attention or repackaging are visible to customers who will be able to see this aspect of Ikea’s commitment to circularity. . Butler says.

In the first two months after the program’s soft launch in 2019, there were more than 7,600 in-store return submissions across Canada, she says. The show was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is running again and has received more than 45,000 submissions since its launch.

By following the steps on the Ikea website, there should be no surprises in the return process. “We are trying to be as clear as possible to avoid confusion,” says Butler. Upholstered furniture, oversized items, or altered products are not part of the program.

Article content

The Sell-Back Program categories include dressers, office drawers, shoe cabinets, sideboards, bookcases and shelves, cabinets, dining tables and chairs, multimedia furniture, and small tables. Since the launch of the program, the most popular reseller categories have been chairs, stools, sideboards, and bookcases.

Customer response to the program has been positive, as many of the items were purchased the same day they went on sale, he says.

The trade show booth will display examples of products that have been received through the program and will be sold through Circular Hubs in the Coquitlam and Richmond stores, says Butler.

The program will also give Ikea the opportunity to share other strategies that support the transition to circularity. In 2015, Ikea switched all of its lighting products to LEDs, a change that Butler estimates can save households up to 20 percent of their energy costs, and in 2020 it removed single-use plastics from its furniture range. for home.

Article content

One way to identify sustainable Ikea merchandise is to look for the green dot that is used to identify products made with circularity in mind, such as Toflund, a soft rug that is made from recycled plastic bottles.

Butler says that to meet its 2030 goal of becoming a circular business, Ikea is re-evaluating every item it makes.

“You cannot meet the demands of the 21st century and be a fully circular company by 2030 using 20th century approaches,” he says.

This means transforming the current linear business model into a circular model and designing products that take reuse, repair, reuse and recycling into account from the start, he says.

This can be achieved by using only renewable, recycled and recyclable materials, removing waste from the supply chain and introducing services like the Sell-Back Program.

Article content

The change is already underway, and the company currently uses 60 percent renewable material and 10 percent recycled material in its processes.

“It will affect some products in our range, but we know that 90 percent of customers are looking for more sustainable options,” he says.

One of Ikea’s other initiatives is to help people repair products through services like the company’s spare parts library, where customers can get the parts they need to repair and extend the life of their items. Announcements about workshops on a variety of relevant topics, such as how to fix small tears or tears in textiles, are shared through the Ikea Family loyalty program.

Popular Ikea foods are also part of the circularity review. The company recently introduced the vegetable ball as a sustainable vegetarian alternative to the traditional meatball. Made with protein from peas, oats, potatoes, onion and apples, the new veggie ball, sold in Swedish food markets near the boxes, has only 4% of the climate footprint of traditional meatball.
the Fall Show at Vancouver Home will be held at the Vancouver Convention Center – West from October 14-17, 2021.