
Show Notes
In the latest episode of Climate Rising from Harvard Business School, Karen Pflug, Chief Sustainability Officer of Ingka Group (IKEA), shares how IKEA is embedding circularity throughout its business model.
She discusses how IKEA is redesigning iconic products like the Billy bookcase to make them easier to disassemble and repair, how secondhand retail pilot programs at IKEA stores are reaching new customers, and how investments like RetourMatras are developing circular solutions for end-of-life mattresses. Karen also describes how policy, design, and customer nudges can accelerate circularity at global scale—and offers advice for those seeking careers in circular economy innovation.
More from Climate Rising
Large corporations play a critical role in addressing climate change—but transforming complex global supply chains is no small task.
Permitting reform has become one of the most consequential—and controversial—topics in U.S. climate and energy policy. As electricity demand rises due to AI, data centers, electrification, and economic growth, many argue that the country’s permitting, transmission, and interconnection processes are too slow to support the clean energy transition.
How can companies make sustainability information useful to consumers at the moment they make a purchase?
Climate action requires more than technology, policy, and capital. It also requires communication.
Carbon labeling has become one of the most visible ways climate actions enter everyday consumer decisions.