Circular economy for our business units
THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY
A circular economy can be defined as a system that takes the reusability of products and raw materials and the use of renewable resources as a starting point and minimizes value loss in the total system and creates value in every link of the life time of the product. In order to make this happen, the circular economy requires focus on the design (construction) of the product to allow better reuse, repair in the reuse-phase and recycling of installation and post-consumer waste.
In the circular economy model of the Ellen Macarthur foundation – the model we prefer to use – there are two loops, operating in their own sphere: one with technical materials and one with bio-based materials.
Bio-based materials, are materials based on renewable resources. Bio-based materials can often follow the strategies of the technical material loop as well, considering that bio-based products can also be redesigned, reused, recycled, etc.
THE SUPPLIERS’ IMPACT ON OUR RAW MATERIALS
By far the largest effect of our environmental impact lies with our suppliers of raw materials. For some of our products this effect is up to 70%. We therefore actively engage with our suppliers to achieve a lower environmental footprint and select those supplier who have an active environmental impact reduction program as part of their strategy. The results for most of our raw materials (i.e. PVC and wood flour) has very positively developed over the last years helping to improve our environmental footprint.
SOME EXAMPLES AND SUCCESS STORIES
With linoleum we successfully closed the loop in a full circle cradle to cradle process whereby we retrieved old obsolete linoleum floor covering from the Technical University in Delft (NL) and from that material created new linoleum floors that were installed in the Heineken experience center in Amsterdam. Pilot projects as these are a promising development in creating circular solutions for our linoleum floors.
In our Coevorden and Reims factories, where we produce vinyl floor covering, we successfully recycled post-consumer installation waste, which is collected from our installations, and reused into our products. We have set-up such take back schemes in the Nordic markets, The Netherlands, Belgium, France and the UK.
Focus on the methodology
LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT
Our first Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was conducted in 1996 in cooperation with the Leiden University (Netherlands) and concerned our linoleum portfolio. At the time looking at the effects of the entire life cycle of a product to measure its environmental footprint was quite novel. Today LCA is a common way to assess the environmental impact of products, whatever they are. LCA calculations typically are made for an entire product category, such as linoleum, rubber or homogeneous vinyl. For each to so called impact categories are calculated and weighted this results in a ranking in which different types of products can be compared.
At Flooring Systems we use life cycle assessment (LCA) not only to identify, but also to continuously improve our sustainability performance. In addition while we perform our LCA calculations to international standards, we also believe that the element of human health and ecology should also feature in this assessment. In 2000, Flooring Systems was the first global floor covering company to commit to providing information about eco-toxicity and human toxicity impacts in all our floor covering LCAs. In 2022, we remained the only flooring company in the world to include these impacts in our environmental product declarations. We use the internationally recognized USEtox® method to calculate and assess our products’ toxicity performance.
ENVIRONMENTAL PRODUCT DECLARATION
An environmental product declaration (EPD) presents quantified environmental data about a specific product. It is based on information from a LCA done for a product category. The following life cycle stages are assessed:
- Production stage (raw material extraction, transportation to manufacturing, and manufacturing)
- Transporting manufactured goods from factory gate to user
- Installation stage
- Use stage
- End-of-life stage
An EPD is transparent and specific, it communicates verifiable, accurate, and non-misleading environmental information for products and their applications. An EPD is third-party verified, and follows a uniform and internationally standardized format. EPDs are in increasing demand from architects and planners as they can be directly incorporated into sustainable building design tools, such as carrying out a building life cycle assessment. Flooring Systems continues to publish third- party certified EPDs for all of its individual floor covering products. By the end of 2022, 47 Flooring Systems products had been EPD certificated and published. All the LCA calculations were third-party verified by UL Environment www.forbo-flooring.com/epd.
Our EPDs are based on the so-called product category rules (PCR) set out in the EN-15804, EN-16810 and ISO-14025 standards. Product category rules define how to conduct a LCA for a product group and what data to include in the resulting report, thereby supporting scientifically based fair choices and stimulating the potential for market-driven continuous environmental improvement. In principle, the benchmark when using EPDs to compare products is the contribution they make to the environmental performance of a building. As a result, using EPD information to compare environmental performance with that of alternative floor covering products reflects a product’s use in a building and the impact it has on the building.
Focus on the 5R principle
THE 5R PRINCIPLE
At Flooring Systems we employ the 5R principle. They are the 4R’s, commonly known in the production phase: reduce, reuse, recycle and renew, whereby the starting point of setting up a circular economy has been added as a fifth ‘R’: Re-design. In particular this concerns designing with circularity in mind. Meaning that products can be constructed in such ways that the individual components can be recycled using available technologies. As such the design phase becomes an important element of the production phase.
The 5R's help us to consciously point out where sustainable choices can be made in each of the stages of the life cycle of our products. This already starts in the conception and design phase of a product. In using ‘green design’ principles concerning the choice and amount of raw materials used in a product and finding alternatives, lie at the very start of a sustainable life cycle that minimize the impact on the environment, without compromising on the functionalities and performance during the use-phase of the product.
RE-DESIGN: LOOSE LAY
Loose lay floor coverings already exist for some time, however very often this concerns plank and tile formats that still need to be adhered with a so called tackifier (a release able adhesive). To develop a loose lay sheet format that can be applied in commercial environments really is an innovation which not only makes the floor covering more easy to install, but it can also be removed at it’s end of life phase with out picking up glue and screed, leaving a clean sheet that can be recycled into raw material and reused.
REDUCE: RAW MATERIAL USE
Of all of the 5R principles, we consider 'reduce' to be the most important, as reducing our initial consumption of materials, energy as well as waste has by far the biggest impact in closing the loop in a circular economy model and both environmentally and financially. Many of our manufacturing sites made a positive contribution in 2022 by reducing raw material use and packaging, and increasing the recycled content of our products. Please find our reporting statistics reduction of energy, water, waste and raw material use in 2022 here.
REUSE: THE INTERNAL LOOP
Forbo defines reuse as 'waste that, after reprocessing, can be fed back as a raw material into the same manufacturing processes.' As such not only our production waste is recycled internally, which is the case for all our product categories – linoleum, vinyl and textile – we increasingly reuse the cut-offs of product that is returned to the factories after installation of a project. For every project this amounts to around 6% of the installed floor. Take-back schemes that are part of our ‘back to the floor’ program are active in our European and North American markets. Our results for 2022 can be found here.
RECYCLING: MOVING TOWARDS CRADLE TO CRADLE
Our definition of recycling is 'material diverted from the waste stream during a manufacturing process that is sent to a third party for them to use as a raw material after reprocessing'. That third party can be another Flooring Systems operations site or external recyclers. In 2022 we invested in third party cooperation for waste recycling in the Netherlands and in France. At the same time schemes to increase the amount of recycled content in all of our product categories are part of our 'Sustainability 2025' program. This is where old floors become the base for the composition of new flooring products. The 2022 results can be found here.
RENEWABLE: OUR 2030 CHALLENGE
Renewable raw materials are (nearly) inexhaustible natural resources that can be replenished, generation after generation. They grow in nature and can be harvested as annual crops, or otherwise are available in abundant quantities in nature. Renewable energy is a natural resource or source of energy that is not depleted by use, such as water, wind, or solar power. With all of our manufacturing sites in Europe these energy sources are becoming ever more readily available. Our 2022 results can be found here.