Enhancing Circular Economy Practices in the Furniture Industry through Circular Design Strategies

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The article exhibits an outstanding degree of structure and is generally straightforward to read, presenting a clear step-by-step methodology. I have a few minor remarks:

 - I suggest adding a section dedicated to Motivations and Objectives, making your intentions clearly visible rather than embedding them within the Introduction.

 - The style of the tables is not aligned with the journal's template.

 - Table 3 presents the most representative case studies. If the list is more extensive, it would be beneficial to include it in an appendix. Additionally, the case studies in Table 3 (and possibly in the appendix) should be described in more detail. It is sometimes difficult to understand what the product is about – for example, while the OTO Chair is easy to imagine, the Kungsbacka from IKEA is not as clear. I would suggest adding another column to briefly describe each product, not just the brand.

 - I recommend exploring in more detail the unique challenges faced by the furniture industry in adopting Circular Economy practices and suggesting tailored solutions that could be effective.

Author Response

Comment 1: I suggest adding a section dedicated to Motivations and Objectives, making your intentions clearly visible rather than embedding them within the Introduction.

Response 1: Thank you for your comment. We think it is a very useful suggestion. Therefore, we have divided the introduction section into two parts: introduction (section 1) and motivations (section 2). 

 

Comment 2:  The style of the tables is not aligned with the journal's template.

Response 2: Thank you for pointing this out. We have aligned the tables with the journal’s template.

 

Comment 3:  Table 3 presents the most representative case studies. If the list is more extensive, it would be beneficial to include it in an appendix. Additionally, the case studies in Table 3 (and possibly in the appendix) should be described in more detail. It is sometimes difficult to understand what the product is about – for example, while the OTO Chair is easy to imagine, the Kungsbacka from IKEA is not as clear. I would suggest adding another column to briefly describe each product, not just the brand.

Response 3: Thank you for your comment. We followed your suggestion, and we have attached Appendix A Table A1, which contains the full list of cases with a brief description of each one. For each case, we have inserted a link that provides more information.

 

Comment 4: I recommend exploring in more detail the unique challenges faced by the furniture industry in adopting Circular Economy practices and suggesting tailored solutions that could be effective.

Response 4: Thank you for your suggestion. We have added more content that highlights the main challenges that furniture companies face when transforming towards a circular economy (lines 147 - 154). Furthermore, we have made the tailored suggestion clearer in section 5 when presenting the research results. 

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The literature research was confined to the last 10 years, why? groundbreaking research was done already more than 20 years ago (e. g. Walter Stahels work). please explain. on the other side, the globalisation of the furniture industry, companies like IKEA and other big dealers have only appeared in the last 15 years. This might distort the conclusions, please comment. a comparision of the present structure of the sector with the classical one of localized small joiners in the past should be given. In analysis of the Lyght Living case, I am interested in accumulated cost of renting vs. buying the same piece for the client, please comment. Some of the examples are ill selected, like Illys chair. Coffee capsules at first should not exist, so in a CE there is no need to use spent coffee capsules for chairs. I rate this initiative mainly a marketing activity and not a significant contribution towards the systemic change which CE is striving for. please comment. The paper is very superficial and does not show a deep knowledge of the sector, please comment. Why do I need AI to design the shape of a sofa, to me, this is a marketing claim, please explain and give details. localized production used to be the norm until recently, the big chains importing from Ukraine and Moldova have appeared only recently, please explain. I suggest you show these development by giving average time of use of furniture 20 years back and today, origin of furniture in the European market 20 years back and today. Also the practical impact of IKEAs second life program activities should be presented in more details, whether this is substantially contributing in comparision to their total sales  to avoiding waste or if this turns out a pure marketing activity. The paper stays on a very superficial level, without presenting any details (preferable materials, construction practises, finance for SME, globalisation, numbers on businesses, cost for the clients). This should be improved.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

the language is fine, but I am not a native speaker of English

Author Response

Thank you very much for taking the time to review this manuscript. Please find the detailed responses below. Our answers are highlighted in green.

 

Comment 1: The literature research was confined to the last 10 years, why? groundbreaking research was done already more than 20 years ago (e.g. Walter Stahels work). please explain.

Response 1: Thank you for your comment. The literature review had no time limits, the only restrictions were on the keywords used to create the database. The aim of the literature review is not to be exhaustive but to introduce the reader to the topic and the current state of the art of design strategies for achieving Circular Economy. To specify this and avoid misunderstandings, we have added details in section 4.2 (line 279) and further references in section 3.1.

 

Comment 2: on the other side, the globalisation of the furniture industry, companies like IKEA and other big dealers have only appeared in the last 15 years. This might distort the conclusions, please comment.

Response 2: Thank you for your pointing out this. We agree that globalisation has disrupted the way the furniture sector was organised. However, the focus of this paper is to understand in recent years how furniture companies are changing regarding the transformation towards a circular economy. We have become aware that in a globalised supply chain, there is a lot of systemic work and research to be done to align and coordinate different types of strategies and operative actions. 

 

Comment 3: a comparison of the present structure of the sector with the classical one of localized small joiners in the past should be given.

Response 3: Thank you for your comment. We agree the revolution in the furniture sector is significant. However, our paper focuses on understanding how the current furniture sector structure should change to transform towards a circular economy. We include your comment as part of our research limitation (section 8, lines 685 to 687).

 

Comment 4: In analysis of the Lyght Living case, I am interested in accumulated cost of renting vs. buying the same piece for the client, please comment.

Response 4: Thank you very much for your comment. The analysis of this case is mainly focused on understanding how this company has applied circular design strategies and how they changed the structure of their business logic from the traditional way of selling furniture products. To give more information to the readers, we have included more details of the case in Table 2.

 

Comment 5: Some of the examples are ill selected, like Illys chair. Coffee capsules at first should not exist, so in a CE there is no need to use spent coffee capsules for chairs. I rate this initiative mainly a marketing activity and not a significant contribution towards the systemic change which CE is striving for. please comment.

Response 5: Thank you for your comment. Cases like the chair developed by Illys and Kartell have their limitations when examined from a holistic and profound perspective of the circular economy. Many furniture companies are adopting a progressive and incremental approach to sustainability and circularity, often beginning with changes in material resources. We included these cases to demonstrate that current circular design initiatives typically address only specific aspects of the broader circular economy concept. These companies are in the early stages of gradually modifying their traditional production methods and developing new business offerings. To highlight these aspects mentioned here, we have modified the contents related to this case in section 5.1 (lines 400-407).

 

Comment 6: The paper is very superficial and does not show a deep knowledge of the sector, please comment.

Response 6: Thank you for your comment. We present the significance and contributions of this paper in both the introduction and conclusion. To highlight and summaries:  this paper examines the current circular design strategies implemented in the furniture sector by conducting a multiple case study analysis. The results show that existing circular solutions predominantly focus on materials and products. The majority of furniture companies are implementing these strategies to enhance resource efficiency and prolong product lifespans. Only a few have successfully implemented circular business models alongside circular product design strategies. The study also highlights that increasing user engagement and adopting a systemic perspective that includes various stakeholders in creating mutually beneficial solutions are areas that are still underdeveloped. At the end of the paper, we propose a framework to effectively guide furniture companies in implementing design strategies from a systemic perspective.

 

Comment 7: Why do I need AI to design the shape of a sofa, to me, this is a marketing claim, please explain and give details. 

Response 7: Thank you for your comment. In our opinion, the case of “Couch in an Envelope” is an inspiring case of how furniture companies could make good use of advanced technology to implement circular design strategies efficiently and effectively. In this case, AI has analysed all the classic designs of sofas in history to provide designers and companies with the most proper solution that uses fewer resources but maintains a good level of comfort. For sure, designers and engineers will make the final decision by integrating AI solutions but not leaving AI to design the shape by itself.

 

Comment 8: localized production used to be the norm until recently, the big chains importing from Ukraine and Moldova have appeared only recently, please explain.

Response 8: Thank you for your comment. As responded in one of the previous comments, we are aware that globalization has brought big problems to the environmental impact of the furniture sector in the past years, and it dramatically changed the global supply chain logic in the furniture sector. Not only big importing from Eastern European as well as from Asia and other parts of the world. This is one of the motivations that drive us to review circular initiatives that re-arrange and re-organise their supply chains with respect to and consideration of local production and more efficient transportation.

 

Comment 9: I suggest you show these development by giving average time of use of furniture 20 years back and today, origin of furniture in the European market 20 years back and today. Also the practical impact of IKEAs second life program activities should be presented in more details, whether this is substantially contributing in comparision to their total sales  to avoiding waste or if this turns out a pure marketing activity.

Response 9: Thank you very much for this important comment and suggestion. We observe and study the IKEA initiative that involves consumers bringing back their old furniture with the aim of showing how this design strategy, "Design for fostering circular behaviour and consumption models", was implemented in a real case. We have modified two parts of the paper to include your suggestions and highlight the focus of this case. We have included Appendix A to show more details of the selected cases, providing more information to readers. Besides, we have elaborated on the description of the IKEA case in section 5.4 (lines 539-546).

 

Comment 10: The paper stays on a very superficial level, without presenting any details (preferable materials, construction practises, finance for SMEs, globalisation, numbers on businesses, cost for the clients). This should be improved.

Response 10:  Thank you for your comment. In this paper, we are focusing on studying how furniture companies apply different circular design strategies that lead to changes in products and services (such as material selection, product design, service offerings and so on). As we stated in the previous response, we have added Appendix A to provide readers with more information on each of the selected cases.

 

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

1. The abstract effectively summarizes the key points of the paper. However, it could be improved by including specific results or findings to give the reader a clearer idea of the paper's contributions.

2. Introduction: The author can add more recent statistics or trends to highlight the urgency of implementing circular economy practices in the furniture industry or show the present study as filling the research gaps. Also, some references are relatively old. Consider including more recent studies to ensure the literature review reflects the current state of research. The objectives are clear, but the research questions could be more explicitly stated.

3. In the method section, it would be helpful to include a brief justification for the chosen case studies and how they were selected.

4. The heading of the second section can be “background” instead of “theoretical background.”

5. L103, data for a recent year can be used here.

6. Table 2 seems to be incomplete.

7. The author can show findings using some figures in the result section.

 

8. The conclusion is very long and can be shortened. 

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Minor improvements are required in English

Author Response

Thank you very much for taking the time to review this manuscript. Please find the detailed responses below. Our answers are highlighted in green. Additionally, we have improved the English as well. 

----

Comment 1: The abstract effectively summarizes the key points of the paper. However, it could be improved by including specific results or findings to give the reader a clearer idea of the paper's contributions.

Response 1: Thank you very much for your comment. We have improved the abstract, highlighting the main findings and results of this paper.

 

Comment 2: Introduction: The author can add more recent statistics or trends to highlight the urgency of implementing circular economy practices in the furniture industry or show the present study as filling the research gaps. Also, some references are relatively old. Consider including more recent studies to ensure the literature review reflects the current state of research. The objectives are clear, but the research questions could be more explicitly stated.

Response 2: Thank you very much for your comment. We noticed that the data is not from a very recent year; however, according to our research on the furniture sector, it is the most updated data published by the European Commission with open access. We agree that we should state the research question more explicitly. Therefore, we have put the redefined research question at the beginning of section 4 (lines 241-244).

 

Comment 3: In the method section, it would be helpful to include a brief justification for the chosen case studies and how they were selected.

Response 3: Thank you for the suggestion. We have expanded Section 4.3 to provide a more detailed explanation of the sampling strategy. You can find the updated information on lines 291 to 310.

 

Comment 4: The heading of the second section can be “background” instead of “theoretical background.”

Response 4: Thank you very much for the comment. We have made changes accordingly (Section 3. background).

 

Comment 5: L103, data for a recent year can be used here.

Response 5: Thank you very much for your comment. As mentioned in the previous response, this data is the most updated one published by the European Commission with open access. European Commission also used the same data in their Horizon European calls dedicated to the furniture sector. here is the link https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/horizon-cl6-2024-circbio-01-3 (section "Scope")

 

Comment 6: Table 2 seems to be incomplete.

Response 6: Thank you for your comment. We have enriched Table 2 with more information on the case. Furthermore, we have included Appendix A to show more information on the analysed cases. 

 

Comment 7: The author can show findings using some figures in the result section.

Response 7: Thank you for your comment. We have added two figures to "section 5 Result".

 

Comment 8: The conclusion is very long and can be shortened

Response 8: Thank you very much for your comment. We have elaborated the conclusion to make it shorter and more effective (Lines 653-675).

Reviewer 4 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Perhaps a table to complement Table 3 would strengthen this paper with some quantitative data / analysis. Although Table 3 cites the 'most representative cases', I think a table that states the quantity or percentage of case studies the authors reviewed and categorized for each Circular Design Strategy would help the reader. This would include more than just the 'most representative ones'. It can even show where some organizations were employing multiple circular design strategies.  A table and discussion may show the reader where there are new opportunities or underused strategies across the industry.

Author Response

Comment 1: Perhaps a table to complement Table 3 would strengthen this paper with some quantitative data / analysis. Although Table 3 cites the 'most representative cases', I think a table that states the quantity or percentage of case studies the authors reviewed and categorized for each Circular Design Strategy would help the reader. This would include more than just the 'most representative ones'. It can even show where some organizations were employing multiple circular design strategies.  A table and discussion may show the reader where there are new opportunities or underused strategies across the industry.

Response 1: Thank you very much for your comment, and this is a very useful suggestion. We have incorporated your suggestion by adding Appendix A. This table provides detailed information on analysed cases and identifies the Circular Design Strategies employed in each case.

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

recommendations considered, agree with publication

Comments on the Quality of English Language

sounds ok to me, however am not a native speaker of English