Cradle to Cradle in 

furniture Industry
Case of study Ikea

Hugo Saúl Niño Lozano

Transitioning IKEA Towards a Circular Economy: A Backcasting Approach

Claudia Szerakowski (2017)
Sustainable
Renewable

Profitable​
Furniture as a Service
A service would create a new value proposition for the
customer, by increasing convenience and flexibility. By
allowing them to pay for the service of using its furniture,
instead of the product itself,

Transport as a Service
One of IKEA’s largest challenges at the moment is accessibility
between cities and the stores, as well as delivery

Furniture that Grows with You

Like furniture as a service, the use of modular furniture design
could also create convenience and flexibility for certain
customer groups, such as families with growing children,
Definition of RFID Tags
RFID tags are a type of tracking system that uses
smart barcodes in order to identify items. 

RFID is short for “radio frequency identification,”

RFID tags are frequently used for merchandise,

but they can also be used to track vehicles, pets,
and even patients with Alzheimer’s disease. An
RFID tag may also be called an RFID chip.
Making use of product passports would be a
passive way of collecting data on a product’s
current and historical condition, location, and
availability, 

Therefore adding more knowledge to facilitate 

reuse, repair, and recycling. 
DIY with AR
Using augmented reality to assist customers with repairing Smart Home Solutions
their products would slow down resource loops and thus By incorporating more active sensors that collect data
reduce environmental impacts from material consumption. about a product, as well as providing consumers feedback
IKEA excels in providing easy to comprehend instructions, on their health and wellness,
and this would facilitate it even further, ideally in a safe
manner.
"Circular business model the specific activities
within design, manufacturing, distribution, retail,
and marketing would change to reflect the reverse
logistics and data acquisition. Key resources would
expand to include the ownership of physical
products throughout the use phase, intellectual
software and copyrights to the new Concept, and
human resources through the innovative culture
that was gained from the incentivization of risk-
taking and experimentation".

Claudia Szerakowski