Circular furniture management for public sector organisations
Public sector organisations have high ambitions in sustainability and circularity – but in practice, furniture reuse accounts for only around 1% of volumes on average. At the same time, there is significant potential to reduce both costs and climate impact by making better use of existing furniture. We help identify where the barriers lie and how to build circular furniture flows that actually work.
Five key requirements for circular furniture flows
Overview of existing assets
Circular management starts with knowing what furniture is already available. Many municipalities lack a consolidated and up-to-date overview of their furniture inventory – information is often scattered, incomplete, or linked to individual departments rather than the organisation as a whole. We help build structures for inventory management and unique identification of furniture as a foundation for governance and reuse.
Traceability and digital identity
For furniture to circulate internally and externally, information must follow the product. QR labelling, lifecycle registers and upcoming Digital Product Passports (DPPs) create transparency and make it possible to assess condition, maintenance needs and reuse value over time – even when furniture changes departments or owners.
Better decision-making support
Reuse is often overlooked because decision-making data is missing or difficult to interpret. We help implement decision-support tools that compare new purchases, internal redistribution, external reuse, refurbishment and rental options based on cost and climate impact per year of use. Better data makes better decisions easier.
Financial management that supports reuse
A structural challenge for many municipalities is that new purchases are treated as investments, while reuse and repair are charged to operational budgets. This can make circular alternatives appear more expensive despite lower actual costs. We help identify these mechanisms and review how financial management can be adapted to support – rather than counteract – circularity goals.
Organisation and system integration
Circular furniture flows require cross-functional collaboration between procurement, finance, property management, IT and operations. We support organisations in clarifying responsibilities and roles, selecting digital solutions that integrate with existing systems, and building long-term working methods without creating parallel structures or unnecessary administration.
Knowledge bank – Circular furniture flows
Since 2017, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden has collected and created knowledge about circular furniture flows in broad collaboration with the industry. This has resulted in practical tools, in-depth analyses, and concrete methods that are freely available for you to access.
Tools
- LCC tool – compare lifecycle costs for purchasing new, leasing, and reuse (in Swedish)
- Traceability data – a tool for managing product information in circular flows (in Swedish)
- Climate figures – for calculating and communicating the climate effects of reuse (in Swedish)
Knowledge bank
- Product passports as an enabler for circular furniture flows (in Swedish; summary in English)
Get in touch
Interested in learning more about how to get started with digitally supported circular furniture management? Contact project manager Emma Enebog at emma.enebog@ri.se.
Would you like to learn more about how RISE can support your work with circular furniture flows?
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