IKEA Parliamentary Event

I was delighted to host a Parliamentary event in the Churchill Room: A Home Makes a Life: IKEA, Creating Affordable, Sustainable Futures event. 

I welcomed the attendees to the event. Over 50 MPs signed up to attend the event organised for IKEA by Dods Events. IKEA Birmingham is located in Wednesbury which is in my constituency of Walsall South. I made an official visit to the store in Wednesbury and met IKEA Market Manager Patricio Aleman and Marsha Smith to hear about the difficulties stores are having during the pandemic and the community work that the company do. I was delighted that IKEA Birmingham in Wednesbury has won the award for the Best Global Regional Store. In my opening remarks I said that IKEA were constantly moving forward in their sustainability as shown by the brand new Circular Hub and the range of services on offer to help reduce waste. IKEA offers a spare parts service for repairs to help customers prolong the life of their products and strive for zero waste. I called it the Repair Shop.!

I introduced Peter Jelkeby, the Country Retail Manager and Chief Sustainability Officer, who outlined IKEA’s sustainability achievements and goals for the future. IKEA will continue to make products affordable and accessible by developing circular solutions for customers who want to care for the products they already own and those who want to pass things on. Mr Jelkeby spoke about IKEA remaining conscious of the current economic difficulties, with affordability being a key cornerstone for the company. IKEA hopes to become a fully circular business by 2030 and launched the circular hubs online this year. This will provide customers access to buy second hand and nearly new furniture and and get advice on how to maintain, clean and personalise their products. 

Kerry McCarthy MP Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Net Zero also addressed the event. Kerry spoke about HM Opposition’s vision for international climate change, the circular economy and nature-based solutions to further sustainability efforts.  

A key theme in IKEA’s sustainability vision is circularity:

-Circularity is about transforming the existing ‘take, make, waste’ linear model to the opposite – reuse, refurbish, remanufacture, and recycle.

-Through their circular hubs, IKEA have provided 560,766 spare parts to customers in the UK – a combined cost saving of approximately £700,000 for customers who did not need to buy new.

The event was a great success. 

There was a LACK table for attendees to build and all MPs and Peers signed a table to be auctioned.