Would you throw away a whole sofa because of one stain? Sometimes, we have to, but those giant pieces of furniture wreak havoc on landfills. That’s why Dunelm designed its Full Circle Sofa with modular pieces that can be swapped out, repaired, and even recycled. Lisa Ly, Senior Sustainability Manager at Dunelm, one of the UK’s largest home furnishings retailers, explains this and other groundbreaking initiatives in its “Good and Circular” approach.
Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff: 800 years ago, in the city of Leicester, England, a market opened just south of the clock town. It was the kind of place where you could buy almost anything—food, clothes, flowers, and, eventually, home goods.
Lisa Ly: Dunelm started in 1979 as a market store in Leicester Market and was founded by Bill and Jean Adlai. They invested in ready-made curtains and a seconds curtains, bedding, and slippers. So seconds is basically where it’s a run-off or the end of production products that others might not want to sell. And they bought them and sold them on the market.
RLS: That’s Lisa Ly, senior sustainability manager at Dunelm, which today is one of the UK’s most trusted brands for homeware and furniture.
LL: So, Dunelm is, in fact, the name of a house where Bill, Jean, and the family lived. We used to be called Dunelm Mill, and the “mill” comes from the history of textiles, but we dropped the “mill.” But you still hear our customers call us Dunelm Mill, which is quite unique.
RLS: Some old habits take a long time to break. And in fact, there’s a lot of value in longevity. In today’s episode, we’ll get an in-house look at how Dunelm prolongs their furniture’s lifespan through a groundbreaking approach to circularity…
To learn more about Dunelm, visit www.dunelm.com.
Check out Dunelm’s line of Full Circle Sofas here.
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Produced by Cascale and Hueman Group Media.
Views and opinions expressed during the podcast are those of the individuals expressing them and do not necessarily reflect those of Cascale or Hueman Group Media.
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