Every year, the Swedish wood industry produces about 54,000 tonnes of wood waste. Some can be used for by-products, but most is burned as fuel. The corresponding figure from Swedish households is about 400,000 tonnes. Lots of furniture is thrown away today as it costs more to repair and reuse than to buy new. How can this waste of resources be reduced, and natural resources used more efficiently?
New Swedish regulations mean that furniture must be traceable backwards in its manufacture and, in the long term, furniture manufacturers must be able to take back their furniture for remanufacturing. In this context, remanufacturing refers to an industrial process in which used products are given a new life. There will be a need to move from a linear to a circular production. But how will this be achieved? What are the conditions in the Swedish furniture industry? How can you prepare? How do you even start? And can opportunities for remanufacturing be considered already at the design stage of new furniture?
Photographer: Daniel Karlsson
Mirka Kans is an associate professor at the Department of Technology Management and Economics (TME) at Chalmers and leads the research in woodworking processes in wood and furniture companies that the department conducts. The research includes a longer research program of five years, CirkuTrä, which maps the conditions for sustainable remanufacturing of wood products, and a more limited research project, RE:Furn. The latter started in September 2023 and will last for three years. CirkuTrä and RE:Furn both spring from a mapping project that took place during 2022-2023. Both are about remanufacturing but have slightly different focuses; CirkuTrä involves more basic research, while RE:Furn is more practically oriented.
The research project RE:Furn
The furniture and interior design industry in Sweden currently consists of about 2,400 companies. Most of them are small and medium-sized enterprises, which often have a limited budget and small margins. The opportunities to meet an increased demand for remanufactured furniture may therefore be limited. The RE:Furn research project is consequently working on issues such as how to prepare for remanufacturing. The main purpose of the project is to increase knowledge about circular economy and remanufacturing of furniture in the Swedish public sector and furniture industry. An important parameter is dialogue, and the project includes several furniture companies that can contribute with their knowledge and experience, as well as various solutions.
The project focuses on the producer level and public procurement, where framework agreements are part of the problem as these are not always adapted for circularity. The research work will develop different scenarios for efficient and profitable remanufacturing of furniture for public environments. These scenarios will then result in useful tools and processes, i.e. technical and organizational solutions such as decision-making and business models and procurement support, which are tested with producers and customers during the course of the project. Guidelines and concepts for effective remanufacturing of furniture in public environments, including a practical handbook, will also be developed. The end goal is an increased awareness of efficient and profitable remanufacturing.
What opportunities and challenges exist to balance competitiveness and circularity?
As mentioned earlier, the smaller furniture manufacturers often have low margins and are order sensitive. This is because the production is often customer-order-based, which can mean large variations in time, size and content. “There are opportunities for remanufacturing as a complement to fill the gaps that can arise in new production”, says Mirka. "To some extent, this is already happening today, although not so systematically.” In the future, the project would like to see producers thinking about remanufacturing in the first place and new production as a complement. And that for the end customer it is of secondary importance whether the furniture is new or remanufactured.
Although the interest in, and share of reuse has increased among manufacturers, there are challenges. One of these is public procurement of furnishings where circularity is included in the requirements. For example, as furniture refurbishment can have different conditions and be done in several ways, it can be difficult for the producer to know if they are calculating on the right premises based on what the customer actually wants. In other words, are they competing on equal terms with other bidders?
Another challenge for furniture remanufacturing is the design rights, that must be respected. Details cannot be changed just any way. You need expertise to do it in the right way. Perhaps some kind of third-party certification could be envisaged here.
Traceability is also a factor to consider. The manufacturer designs a piece of furniture that is then sold to the end customer through architects and retailers. Therefore, there may be problems finding the original manufacturer. Here, the introduction of digital product passports* will be of great help, although the introduction itself may entail other challenges for many actors.
Finally, the supply and influx of used furniture to be remanufactured can become a bottleneck. Today, the volumes that will be needed are not available. Customers will have to stop throwing away furniture and instead leave it for reuse. Here, some form of resupply actor could be a future scenario.
"There are many actors and driving forces in the field," Mirka sums up. "Within the project, we will not have the opportunity to dig deeper in all areas but will focus on original manufacturers and public customers. But we are of course aware of the problem and take it into account.”
What has happened so far?
"We have spent the first period mapping the current situation and formulating various possible scenarios," says Mirka. "One scenario would be, for example, that 50% of the production volume at the producer level should be circular. Another, that 50% of a customer's procurement volume should be circular.”
But it can also be more concrete things, like pricing. How do you calculate what it actually costs? For example, it may depend on the condition of the furniture. Also, environmental aspects such as carbon dioxide impact. To be able to compare the costs of new production and remanufacturing in a relevant and at the same time reliable way.
And what effects will there be for the producer if you switch to an increased share of remanufacturing? How can you make the best use of the resources and skills that you have already invested in in a transition? Do you get your money back if you change?
Here is a very good example from one of the participants in the research project, the interior design group Input Interiör AB. They were commissioned by the energy company e-On to furnish their new head office where sustainability would be central in all aspects. As a result, all 975 workplaces have been reused from previous interior materials, as well as work cabinets, conference furniture, seating and more. Furniture and interior materials from the former headquarters were used as much as possible. An environmental consultant from the company Bengt Dahlgren also participated in the project, who documented comparative facts such as cost savings and savings of carbon dioxide emissions, but also the challenges that arose along the way. All with the aim of facilitating future projects.
We will create real tools that companies can use!
In addition to dialogue and scenarios, the project works with organizational solutions such as tools and processes to support remanufacturing and procurement. Here, a decision support tool for remanufacturing is currently being developed that is aimed at the producer level. In this work, it is central to map the customers' procurement routines, what support is already in the tools that are available on the market today, what problems are experienced, etc.
The project is currently in a phase of idea generation and solution development. A final workshop to evaluate the solutions is planned for the end of the year. This will be followed by dialogues, as well as tests and evaluations of the solutions at the manufacturers' and their customers' premises during next year.
What kind of solutions do you hope to develop?
"It will be mostly organisational solutions that will fit within the results of the RE:Furn project," says Mirka.
"We will study procurement factors such as procurement expertise and procurement situations and what triggers certain behaviours, such as why people do not procure circularly today. Dialogue with actors is being conducted, but probably this area will be under the CirkuTrä research program, where we have more time.“
"The most important aspect of the project is dialogue between producer companies, the public sector and other actors, scenarios for efficient and profitable remanufacturing, and technical and organisational concepts that will support these scenarios," Mirka sums up, noting that the demand for remanufactured furniture is increasing. But there may be a lack of expertise or organisation for circular procurements on the customer side. And this is where it is hoped that the project's solutions will help. "We will create real tools that companies can use!”
Photographer: Daniel Karlsson
More information about the research
Efficient remanufacturing of furniture used in public environments (RE:Furn)
- Three-year research project during the period September 2023 to August 2026.
- Funded by: RE:Source which is funded by Vinnova, the Swedish Energy Agency and Formas.
- Project participants: three universities, six companies, two regions and two other actors.
Strategies for increased circularity in the wood processing industry (CirkuTrä)
- Five-year research programme for the period 2023 – 2028
- Funded by: The Kamprad Family Foundation
- Project participants: three universities
Mapping of conditions for efficient remanufacturing of furniture in used in public environments
- Research project, 2022 – 2023
Want to learn more?
On 4 September, Mirka, together with Professor Jimmy Johansson from Linnaeus University, will give a lecture on the topic Circular Strategies in the Swedish Wood and Furniture Industry at the fair “Trä och Teknik” in Gothenburg. (In Swedish)
Webinars are also planned during the autumn. Keep an eye on the calendar!
* Digital product passports
Digital Product Passports (DPPs) are part of the EU's new framework legislation Ecodesign Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), and will increase traceability and facilitate a circular economy by requiring manufacturers to share sustainability data for their products throughout their life cycle. The aim is to make sustainable products the norm in the EU's internal market and to reduce the environmental impact of products throughout their lifetime.
Read more here: https://enterpriseeurope.se/nyheter/nyheter/2024-02-12-digitala-produktpass-ny-eu-lagstiftning-fran-och-med-2024.html
Other sources
- Färdplan för en resurseffektiv, biobaserad möbel- och inredningsbransch (2022), Svenskt trä, TMF, Skogsindustrierna
- SCB (2022)
- Associate Professor, Supply and Operations Management, Technology Management and Economics