Calling for the next Circular Level-up in the Furniture Industry

The Circular Business Lab at RISE

The Circular Business Lab at RISE is a membership based collaboration space for companies that want to transition to circular business. It works somewhat like a gym, you can work-out on your own or join classes ("clusters") together with others. You can also have your own PT-team to take you through a whole journey and towards your circular business targets. You will need to invest and sweat a bit along the way. 

Circular potential in the furniture industry

The focus on circular transition in the furniture industry goes back to the fact that we see great potential for circular business models. In Sweden alone, furniture at a value of 23 billion SEK is produced every year. A large part of this furniture is used for a limited time and then thrown away due to changed customer needs and preferences or wear and tear. 

Through circular business models, value can be captured , resources can be spared and environmental impact can be limited for example by prolonging the lifetime of products, ensuring several use-cycles and smart end-of life handling. 

There are many converging forces right now leading up to a shift to circular business logic. EU Policies push hard for product sustainability, transparency and resource efficiency and we see customer preferences and thereby market potential leaning towards circular for a great many product segments. These changing competitive dynamics should be on the strategic agenda of every company.

RISE and the furniture industry go way back

In our joint quest to make Swedish furniture industry internationally renowned for progressive circular business practices, we’ve run a great many research projects together. 
This site gathers some furniture projects RISE has been part of in the past https://cirkularitet.se/
This project is ongoing right now: https://www.ri.se/en/what-we-do/projects/product-passport-as-an-enabler-for-circular-flows-of-furniture