Ikea lease
Kitchen subscription
Millennials and Gen Z are said to be less focused on ownership and increasingly interested to pay for access or usership. Technology has contributed to this shift for example in media; instead of buying movies, you pay for a Netflix subscription and instead of purchasing CD’s, you rely on your Spotify playlists that are just one click away. The shift from ownership to usership is also visible with more tangible products, such as cars, bikes and now furniture. Last year Ikea already introduced a small-scale pilot in the east of Amsterdam by letting students lease 5 pieces of furniture for 20 euros per month, but now the furniture giant is taking its new business model to a new level by providing customers the possibility to lease different types of furniture such as office chairs and kitchens.
The new strategy allows Ikea to re-use furniture and therefore reduce its climate footprint by 15 per cent in absolute terms. This will In addition, it will make apartments more flexible and adjustable to residents’ needs and taste. Read more about it on FastCompany and the Guardian.
Keep it in the loop
Fueled by recycling company TerraCycle, the World’s major consumer good companies joined their forces in an effort to create a more environmentally friendly subscription plan on groceries: Loop. In a partnership with UPS and other delivery companies Loop doesn’t not only deliver its products in reusable packaging, but it will also come to pick up the used packages to will clean and reuse them. New York, Paris, New Jersey and Pennsylvania will be among the first cities where Loop will be launched in May 2019.
With introducing this business model, Loop is shifting the responsibility for reducing waste to the production companies instead of the consumer.
Extra shipping is included as the products have to be shipped back for cleaning and reuse, but TerraCycle calculated that Loop is still better for the environment than regular subscription services as most of the (environmental) costs of products are in first time they have to be created. In total Loop exists of 25 partners, among which 8 of the 10 companies are the largest contributors to the plastic waste crisis, according to Greenpeace. Read the full article here.