Steelcase tackles the circular economy, one 'bite' at a time

"Even though we’ve been working a very long time to design our products such that they can be taken apart at the end of life, and the careful material choices that we make, the deep chemistry work we do and life cycle assessments, designing for a circular economy is still different," said Angela Nahikian, director of global sustainability at Steelcase.

She spoke with Dan Dicks, Steelcase'sdirector of globalend-of-useservices, about the office furnishing manufacturer's now eight-year "long road" towards a circular economy strategy.

Moving the needle on circularity is about "systems thinking, radical efficiency, busting through silos and innovation," said panel moderator Joel Makower.

In order to create positive change on a massive scale, the company partnered withinfluencers beyond the sustainability department to develop circular lifecycles for its products, which are more "performance-based than transaction-based," Nahikian said.

Dicks said the focus on circular economy began when Steelcase was embarking on its centennial anniversary.

"We were creating a service where a product used to be," he said. To accomplish this, "you have to pick what's important to you ... one bite at a time."

Despite challenges along the way, Nahikian said it's a great time for businesses to embrace circular economy: "It's going to get more exciting from here."

Watch a video of the entire video of the session fromGreenBiz 17 here.

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