Challenge 3
As IKEA continues its journey toward becoming a more circular business, one of the biggest opportunities lies in how products and materials are identified, handled, recovered and redirected throughout their lifecycle. Explore the future of decision-making in circular retail systems: from smart inspection and waste recognition to data-enabled routing, behavioral design, human-machine collaboration, service redesign, and new ways of connecting recovery, resale, recycling and operations.
Challenge 1
Kibera is often counted as one of Africa’s largest informal settlements and is shaped by a combination of poverty, climate vulnerability, limited infrastructure, insecure livelihoods, and unsafe living conditions. Breaking cycles of poverty by enabling caregivers would gain more stable income, greater financial independence, and stronger opportunities to provide safety, care, education, and dignity for their children. By transforming waste into value, the challenge can support families in becoming more resilient while contributing to a cleaner and more climate-resilient community.
Kibera is often counted as one of Africa’s largest informal settlements and is shaped by a combination of poverty, climate vulnerability, limited infrastructure, insecure livelihoods, and unsafe living conditions. Waste management services in Nairobi’s informal settlements are often inadequate and inconsistent, with low-income areas remaining underserved compared to more formal parts of the city. Waste can block drainage systems, worsen flooding, create health risks, and reduce the safety and dignity of public spaces. Yet these same waste streams may also represent an opportunity for circular entrepreneurship, local job creation, and climate-resilient livelihoods.
OpenInnovation is Copenhagen’s flagship student innovation challenge, bringing over 120 students, researchers, and sustainable innovation enthusiasts together with innovation experts and key actors in the Danish ecosystems.
Sara Dømler
Project Manager
sardera@dtu.dk