CISUFLO overall goal is to minimize the environmental impact of the EU flooring sector, by setting up a systemic framework for circular and sustainable floor coverings taking into account both technical feasibility and socio-economic factors.
CISUFLO specific objectives:
Objective #1
The first CISUFLO’s objective concerns the development of concept and guidelines for ‘Circular Floor Coverings’ (CFC) by considering design for circularity; durable and sustainable materials and use of latest (digital) manufacturing technologies.
Output: design guidelines, materials choice & prototyping of CFC.
Objective #2
The second CISUFLO’s objective consists in setting up an integrated product information system for material and product tracing all along the value chain.
Output: software platform for product info retrieval made available via an app, serving both consumer and professional actors along the value chain. Linking to physical CFC products via hardware tagging.
Objective #3
The third CISUFLO’s objective focuses on the definition and evaluation of ‘circular business models’ and the related sociotechnical impact.
Output: Mapping and modelling of value chains and materials streams, novel circular business models and their economic and sociotechnical impact assessment. Quantified value creation schemes for the 3 flooring types, covering all stakeholders.
Objective #4
The fourth CISUFLO’s objective covers the demonstration of ‘circular flooring’ via six pilots at well-chosen steps along the circular value chain and at full circular level.
Output: implementation of 6 pilots (reaching TRL 6-7) and their evaluation.
Objective #5
The fifth CISUFLO’s objective consists of assessing the sustainability of the new technologies.
Output: Life cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC), Product Environmental Footprint (PEF), incl. other societal benefits (s-LCA), with focus on Pilots 4, 5 and 6.
Objective #6
The sixth CISUFLO’s objective concerns the transformation support for large scale sector-wide industrial uptake.
Output: circular flooring transformation plan (incl. setup of trusted value chains and incentive schemes), offered in form of an interactive systemic transformation support tool (app) roll out via tech transfer & industry workshops. Transformation audit with at least 10 companies.
Objective #7
The seventh CISUFLO’s objective is to transfer of findings to other types of floor coverings and to other (linked) sectors (furniture, construction, plastics). Clustering & collaboration with other projects.
Output: circular economy cross-sector models, highlighting synergies, similarities & differences with ‘flooring’. Common training material, standardization contributions, certification schemes development & policy input.
Objective #8
The eighth CISUFLO’s objective is to increase the awareness on project results within the flooring sector and beyond.
Output: tailored business plans for the CISUFLO companies; raise awareness about the CISUFLO results within the sector and beyond to ensure uptake and use of CISUFLO results.