The 鈥渨orld鈥檚 greenest department store鈥 is set to open in Wales 鈥 and already has a Game Of Thrones actor as a fan.
Veteran forester Ru Hartwell will open the two-storey Climate Shop on Great Darkgate St in Aberystwyth on Saturday.
It has 10 departments but one simple aim of turning 鈥渏unk into carbon鈥.
Actor and climate campaigner Jerome Flynn, from Soldier, Soldier and Game Of Thrones, has already said he鈥檚 coming in for a kettle.
Ru said: 鈥淚 came up with the idea during lockdown.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a pretty simple 鈥榡unk into carbon鈥 project, really.
鈥淧eople give us their unwanted gear and we sell it to fund tree-planting down in Kenya.
鈥淎s they grow, the trees draw down carbon and so help to keep the planet cool.鈥
With a floor area of 6,500sq ft, the store will be stocked to the brim with household gear entirely donated by people in Wales concerned about the environment.
鈥淚t follows on from the success of a smaller shop in Lampeter which has raised enough cash to plant 125,000 trees since April.
鈥淭he community here have really taken to the idea and they鈥檝e given us fantastic support,鈥 said Ru.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a bit of a win-win all round.
鈥淟ess stuff goes to landfill, fewer resources are consumed in making new products, poorer local people get some cheap gear, whilst African farmers receive a helping hand and the planet gets a few more cooling tropical trees.鈥
In a twist on the standard charity shop model, in both stores all the goods are not priced in pounds and pence but in the unique Climate Shop currency of 鈥楾rees Planted.
Ru said: 鈥淣ormally whenever we buy something new, the natural world is harmed because everything has to be manufactured, processed and delivered etc. but this is a nature-positive shop.
鈥淗ere, every single purchase plants trees which support biodiversity and absorb carbon.
鈥淚t costs us 20p to plant each tree, so if a frying pan is priced at 10 Trees Planted, it will cost 拢2.鈥
Aberystwyth Mayor Alun Williams, who will launch the Shop at 1.15pm on Saturday, said: 鈥淚n a drastically changed economy, it鈥檚 going to take locally based innovation like this to fill the gaps in the high street left by the old chain stores.鈥
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Actor Flynn said: 鈥淚 can鈥檛 get to the launch but love the idea and will be dropping in soon to plant some trees whilst replacing my kettle.鈥
Maverick carbon forester Ru, 63, planted his first tree in Wales in 1976 when his parents bought a Cambrian Mountain hill farm above Lampeter. The aim now, with help from the charity shops and climate charity Size of Wales, is to plant one million trees every year in Kenya.
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