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Businesses must enter a new era of radical collaboration to achieve sustainability goals

Employees and cars on the production floor of the SUSTAINera Circular Economy Hub in Turin, Italy
Stellantis’s circular economy hub in Turin. The sharing of waste material between industries helps reduce reliance on virgin materials and creates value from what has been discarded © Giuliano Berti/Bloomberg

Thomas Leneveu is vice-president of Tarkett Emea’s commercial business unit

To create a circular economy, companies need to close material loops, share their experiences and enable products, materials and energy to circulate efficiently across sectors   

At a glance

  • A significant collaboration opportunity offered by the circular economy is the sharing of waste material between industries to reduce reliance on virgin materials and create value from what is discarded.

  • We need habitual and embedded information sharing across industries, supported by the right frameworks, incentives and infrastructure.

  • We must take a human-centric approach, helping to elevate and celebrate businesses that share the same vision.

For many in business, the idea of collaborating with other companies or industries does not sit entirely comfortably with them. In a world where business is dominated by combat-related metaphors and a culture of rivalry, it can feel odd to view other businesses as potential partners. 

But the broad systemic challenges we face can only be tackled through radical cross-industry collaboration. We need to see businesses working together to close material loops, share their experiences and create systems that enable products, materials and energy to circulate efficiently across sectors. 

These behaviours are the foundation of a circular economy. They offer a compelling economic case for business to reduce costs in the long term; improve profitability and resilience; meet climate change commitments; and increase security of raw material supplies. 

But what are the realities of embracing such radical collaboration? And how easy is it to move towards collective action, amid the pressures of a highly competitive global economy? 

Material partnerships

One of the most significant collaboration opportunities offered by the circular economy is the sharing of waste material between industries. This helps reduce reliance on virgin materials and creates value from what has been discarded. 

Currently there are pockets of good practice globally, with some interesting cross-industry partnerships arising simply from an openness between industries. 

For instance, a partnership within our Desso carpet business originated from a chance meeting at a cradle-to-cradle event at our site in Waalwijk, Netherlands.

The director of a local water company revealed he had calcium carbonate (chalk) residues available from the drinking water treatment process. Under the subsequent partnership, waste chalk from Dutch water is upcycled into stabiliser for Desso’s EcoBase carpet backing, reducing our reliance on virgin chalk previously sourced from a mine in Northern France. 

While such chance encounters have led to some valuable material flows between industries, we need to see a step change in the way businesses seek and exchange information about their waste streams and resources. Curiosity-driven meetings are no longer enough. We need habitual and embedded information sharing across industries, supported by the right frameworks, incentives and infrastructure.

Culture of transparency 

There has been a lot of debate recently about the rise of “greenhushing”. This wall of secrecy around corporate sustainability efforts is leading to a shortage of valuable information coming from businesses and we are missing opportunities to learn from other companies and industries as they navigate their own sustainability journeys. 

Conversely, businesses that create environmental product declarations are enabling customers, competitors and non-governmental organisations to understand the environmental impact of their products, based on lifecycle analysis. Tarkett has also developed material health statements — an “identity card” for ingredients that offers transparency on the materials used in our products. 

Of course, within every business there is a line between transparency and commercial sensitivity. But sharing cross-sectoral knowledge breeds trust, and ultimately has the potential to inspire and guide other businesses, and sometimes entire industries, towards more responsible practices. Now is not the time to withhold valuable sustainability learning from others. 

Sharing systems 

Alongside information sharing, we must consider how entire systems of reuse, recycling and remanufacturing can be shared across industries to reduce raw material extraction and processing. There is a clear economic incentive here, with the potential to drive down costs while creating new revenue streams from recycled materials. 

We have adopted this approach with our take-back and recycling programme ReStart. This ensures more post-installation and used flooring avoids landfill and incineration in up to 22 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The programme focuses primarily on Tarkett flooring, and for carpets we have accepted post-consumer carpet materials from competitors for some years. In Sweden we also take back vinyl flooring from our competitors.

One challenge we consistently face with the ReStart programme is how to incentivise the return of post-consumer flooring when landfill or incineration might be easier. One of our solutions is a homogenous vinyl range called iQ Loop, which is made primarily of post-consumer material. We offer the iQ Loop collection almost exclusively to customers who contribute material, incentivising those who recycle their post-consumer waste to join the loop.   

Elevating one another

With all the focus on technical systems, complex supply chains and material choices, it is easy to forget that one of the most radical acts of collaboration is something altogether more human. It simply helps to elevate and celebrate those businesses who share the same vision. 

There are many opportunities to collaborate with brands driven by the same values. These can range from imaginative commercial partnerships — as seen in our collaboration with acoustic expert Baux earlier this year — to the simple platforming of companies that we believe should be recognised for their progress and innovation.  

It is easy to hide behind the rhetoric of business as a battleground. But the global systemic challenges we face simply will not be achieved with a combative, isolationist mindset. Radical collaboration may not always be the easy route — but it is exciting, rewarding and commercially compelling. 

A service from the Financial Times