Making the world go round
We opened the first Circuit space in our Birsta City meeting place in Sundsvall (Sweden), offering the many people easy access to a range of services, retailers and activities related to the circular economy.
What does it mean when we say we want to inspire and enable the many people to live a more sustainable life? Among other things, it means to make it easy for everyone to do their part creating a better planet. One way to do it is to provide the communities of our meeting places with spaces that offer many ideas, products, tools, and services that help them reduce their impact on our environment. Just like Circuit.
As the name hints, Circuit is a curated space for goods and services related to the circular economy, inspiring visitors to repair, reuse, and recycle everyday items. They can also rent products, and get help to re-use, repair and recycle items – finding any and all opportunities to eliminate wastefulness. We opened the very first Circuit in our Birsta City meeting place in Sundsvall (Sweden) in early June 2022.
Let us take you for a tour! As you enter, you’re met by our welcome desk where our co-workers will answer all the questions about the space. You can then visit the lounge area, or bring your items to the community Swap Shop. Make sure to also pay a visit to our innovative partners that make circular living truly enjoyable. These include a Repair Station staffed by community-led businesses skilled at repairing or personalising your existing belongings, and leading circular retailers like AB Småland. Hyber, who offers rental and subscription services for children’s wear and equipment. You can also spend some time browsing around the vintage and second-hand stalls in the Loppis area, our own contemporary twist on the traditional flea market. And if you want to learn more about how to make circularity an integral part of your everyday life, the welcome hub offers a lively agenda of workshops and activities where you can meet experts who are happy to share their knowledge on how to better care for and extend the life of your things.
At a time when we’re all aware of the unsustainable impact humans are having on our planet, a circular lifestyle inspires to get the very most out of every single resource we use. As Jens Nielsen, Ingka Centres Global Commercial and Digital Director, puts it: “We’re all becoming more conscious of our consumption, with many of our simple everyday pleasures coming at a cost to both ourselves and the planet. But it doesn’t have to be this way. By making it easier to repair, reuse and recycle, we can help our visitors achieve more with less, and live within the limits of our planet. Our meeting places are at the heart of communities, and so they are a natural location for inspiring local people. With the support of partners offering products made from renewable or recycled materials, Circuit makes it easy and exciting for our visitors and the local community to live in ways that are friendlier to both the planet and their pockets, and I believe such spaces have potential to spread across our portfolio in the future.”
We won’t hide we love Circuit and we’re proud of it. And that’s not only for the many opportunities it offers to live in a more circular way, but also because its true strength lies in bringing together different people who can share a wealth of knowledge about how to live more in tune with our planet, and bring along many fresh ideas on how to apply that to our everyday, every day. Together, we can make the world go round – or circular.
Example 1: Working together for a more transparent retail industry Sustainable Retail Index Association (SRIA)
Progress happens through collaboration. That's why Ingka Centres is a permanent member of the Sustainable Retail Index Association (SRIA), an industry initiative that brings retailers and partners together to improve transparency around sustainability performance in retail. The Sustainable Retail Index Association (SRIA) was launched in February 2026 by Ingka Centres, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Good On You and WWF France to help improve sustainability transparency across the retail sector. Through the Sustainable Retail Index (SRI), the association provides a common framework that helps retailers and property companies assess environmental and social performance, identify opportunities for improvement and increase transparency across the retail ecosystem.
Example 2: Making reuse and repair easier to explore Matkus Luuppi, Finland
Matkus Luuppi is a circular economy hub located next to Matkus Meeting Place in Kuopio, Finland. Developed through a partnership between Ingka Centres Kuopio Oy, Jätekukko Oy, Elävä Foundation and Elävä Kauppa Oy, it brings together reuse-focused retail, material collection and sorting services, educational activities and community engagement in one destination. Matkus Luuppi serves as the primary pilot site for the EU-supported ICELIFE (ReStyle, RePair, ReUse) programme.
Love your Stuff For Longer
Our annual “Love Your Stuff For Longer” initiative gives people opportunities to reuse and exchange things through activities such as peer-to-peer exchanges. In FY25, 337,000 visitors across our global portfolio engaged with the initiative.
Example 3: Opening pathways to employment Meeting Place Academies
Across Spain, Italy and Poland, our Meeting Place Academies work together with local organisations to provide practical training, workplace exposure and skills development for refugees and people at risk of social exclusion. These programmes help participants build experience, strengthen skills and explore pathways into employment.
Example 4:
Energy efficiency in 2026
33 of our 34 operational meeting places purchase certified renewable electricity for their own operations. One of our meeting places currently uses renewable heating and cooling solutions. Across the portfolio, 30 meeting places provide electric vehicle charging facilities, either through our own operations or together with our partners, and 15 have on-site solar PV installations. Together, these measures contribute to our efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from our own operations and provide options that can support lower-emission travel to and from our meeting places.