To enable circular business practices in the flooring industry, current value chains are required to change, transitioning from linear, open loop value chains (featuring limited options for reuse and recycling of materials) towards circular, closed loop systems. To do so, new business models are needed which describe how stakeholders can collaborate to realise circular business practices as well as incentivise stakeholders to do so.

Circular business models can target one or more phases in the product lifecycle: the design phase (embedding circularity for new floor coverings), the use phase (extending the use of current floor coverings) or the closing phase (reusing or recycling materials used). Flooring industry stakeholders can rely on the following business models:

• Business models for circular material design: Through this business model, organisations aim for circular impact by using secondary materials to design and fabricate their products.
• Business models for repair and recyclability: Through this business model, organisations aim for circular impact by modularising their products for easy of repair and recycling post-use.
• Business models for extended lifetime: Through this business model, organisations aim for circular impact by extending the lifetime of products through repair and maintenance.
• Business models for reuse: Through this business model, organisations aim for circular impact by ensuring the reuse of products after their use, avoiding production.
• Business models for recycling: Through this business model, organisations aim for circular impact by recycling products, extracting (secondary) materials for new products.

In working towards the business models above, the following recommendations can be given:

• Understand the needs and requirements of customers to align actions for future business models with these needs. Specifically, business-to-business customers operate at a larger scale and often have stronger (obligated) motives to pursue circularity. Often, this can help to ease the business case for circular flooring solutions.
• Assess individual position for flooring value chain, influence and access to capabilities to move towards new business models. Often, capabilities are needed as part of new business models which are not necessarily already part of the company or even the value chain.
• Establish value chain collaboration with partners closely positioned in the value chain to establish shared circular propositions. For service-based offerings, identify service providers able to offer add-on services and establish governance over key partners to streamline activities. In addition, ensure transparency between partners through communication to align supply and demand of waste material.

Floor covering manufacturers:

• Relevance:
  • Central position of floor covering manufacturers
  • Floor coverings manufacturers play a key role in enabling circular business models for design, as they can directly work on modularising their product or making their product more circular by design.
• Market Access for floor covering manufacturers
  • Developing circular propositions can help floor covering manufacturers distinguish themselves from other manufacturers and as such foster additional market access or strengthen relationships with related partners (retailers).
• Legislation (such as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR))
  • Legislation may dictate striving for circular business practices. The business models on display can offer routes for floor covering manufacturers to start working towards such business practices and to comply with legislation.

Material providers:

• Material Demand:
  • Increased opportunities for recycled content into floor coverings, particularly in value chains which aim for circularity by design type of business models or recycling type of business models, as these business models deal with the use of secondary material or the extraction of materials from current products.
• Regulatory and Transparency Alignment:
  • Need for clarity on what materials are suitable to use as part of new floor coverings as well as transparency on the nature of the materials (e.g. can the claim be made that the materials used are secondary).

Flooring service providers (repair, maintenance):

• Relevance:
  • Position of service providers in enabling business models during the use phase
  • Role of service providers is key to extend the lifetime of floor coverings at customers through maintenance, repair and refurbishment activities. Through timely repair and maintenance, the current lifetime of floor coverings can be extended. Through refurbishment, floor coverings can be upgraded to offer a long(er) lifetime to customers (avoiding the production of new floor coverings).
• Market Access
  • Services offered to extend the lifetime can be monetised, providing incentives for flooring service providers to start operating with partners such as retailers or floor covering manufacturers. Particularly in B2B settings, such services can be offered ‘at scale’ for which service fees can be accrued.

Retailers:

• Relevance:
  • Orchestration of circular business models
  • Retailers typically bridge the gap between floor production and customers, and therefore can exert influence over the type of customers (B2B versus B2C) addressed and the type of circular value proposition considered.
• Customer awareness
  • Being the (often) customer-facing stakeholder in the value chain, retailers play an important role in communicating the value of circular value propositions. This can range from stressing the circular nature of the floor coverings towards incentivising customers to bring back floor coverings post-use (to accommodate recycling efforts).
• Legislation (such as EPR)
  • Legislation may dictate striving for circular business practices. The business models on display can offer routes for retailers to start working towards such business practices and to comply with legislation.