Brief
Dive Brief:
Ikea is opening its most sustainable store to date in Greenwich, U.K., a borough of London on the River Thames, according to a report from the Retail Gazette. Ikea didn’t immediately return Retail Dive’s request for more information.
The 344,445-square foot store, which aims to garner BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) “Excellent” accreditation for sustainability, will open Feb. 7. It will also feature photovoltaic panels, rainwater capture and gray water treatment to reduce water consumption by 50%, according to the report.
The location will have a roof garden and other green space and a “Learning Lab” for shoppers to learn how to prolong the life of various items, grow food, upcycle past purchases and otherwise make their own activities and possessions more sustainable.
Dive Insight:
Ikea continues its pivot to attract more urban shoppers, who tend to be younger and environmentally aware.
The Swedish furniture retailer is executing a three-year plan with the assumption that more people will be decorating smaller homes with fewer resources, CEO Jesper Brodin said earlier this year. The company’s own research shows that more people across the world will continue to move into more urban areas. By 2030, twice as many people — some 60% of people in the world — will live in large cities, Ikea found.
“We know that many of our customers aspire to a sustainable and healthy lifestyle,” the retailer’s Chief Sustainability Officer Pia Heidenmark-Cook said in a report released this year that showcased its newer sustainable stores. “Their stories show us what a big impact we can have by showing the benefits of sustainable and healthy living, and empowering people to improve their lives through everyday actions. We will take all that we have learned from these projects to help us take the next big steps in this area,” she later added.
The company boasts that 91% of the waste from its stores is recycled or incinerated for energy recovery and that 100% of its cotton and 77% of its wood comes from sustainable sources. In the U.K. and Ireland, the company since 2014 has run a “Live LAGOM project” to inspire its workers and customers “to take steps towards a more sustainable life,” with products and ideas “to make small and achievable changes that enhance their daily lives and have big sustainability impacts,” according to Ikea’s report. “Lagom” is a Swedish concept of “taking just the right amount — not too much and not too little,” Sharon McCracken, Sustainable Life at Home leader at IKEA Retail U.K. and Ireland, said in the report.
More stores in city centers, accessible by bike, car and public transportation, are being planned worldwide, with the flagship in Copenhagen opening in 2020, Ikea previously announced.