We have defined three areas of focus that we believe will help us build a more circular business, they are: products fit for circularity, circular models of usership and ownership, and circular end-of-life pathways.

What’s more, we recognise that these three topics are interlinked, and that a circular business model relies on all three functioning together – circular products require circular end-of-life pathways to ensure they are successfully recovered, reused, and recycled. In this series of short articles, we hope to dive deeper into these three topics, and to discuss the opportunities and challenges presented by each.

Circular Products & Our Understanding of Value

At its heart, the circular economy requires products that are designed and made for circularity. In their foundational text, Cradle to Cradle, Braungart and McDonough described two industrial cycles – the biological cycle, consisting of products and materials that degrade and become new beneficial nutrients in the ecosystem, and the technological cycle, consisting of products and materials, often man-made, that can be recovered, disassembled, and recycled – or even upcycled – into new products. Furniture products present a particularly interesting challenge because they often straddle both cycles, mixing biological and technical nutrients, and because they typically have long lifecycles of demanding use.

At an essential level, a circular furniture product needs to be designed for disassembly and repair, be made from high quality sustainable materials that are recyclable or biodegradable, be durable, be made using clean renewable energy, and be manufactured under equitable working conditions.

It is these properties that we look for in the products we bring to market, and that support our philosophy of Furniture for Life. We believe that these properties are what create the true value in a product, and the reality is that this value is too often overlooked. This is particularly true in commercial furniture procurement, where the short-term pressures and incentives of cost, margin, time, and property-lease cycles often prevent us from considering long-term value and the lifecycle impacts of our decisions. What’s more, these issues have only been exacerbated by the macro-economic climate, increasing construction costs, and a desire to reduce costs in spend areas like furniture.

In order to transition to a more circular economy, we need to re-evaluate our understanding and appreciation of the value of products and widen our perspective to include lifecycle considerations such as manufacturing conditions, serviceability, resale value, and end-of-life treatment. Value is also an altogether more positive lens to see the world through as it considers the positive impact a product, service, or material can generate – rather than solely the financial cost incurred to obtain it. In short, we need to think about value, not cost.

Herman Miller Performance Seating