Built for the Future: How Circularity Helps Companies Survive and Thrive

For all the panelists, circularity offers an exciting new business model for companies. “The battleground for product manufacturers is shifting from who can sell the product and who can sell the most products to who owns the life cycle for the product and I think when we reframe our thinking into that in that mindset, it's not just about that first instance of selling something, but it's about managing that product and managing that interaction with your customers for that product over the course of its entire life cycle” said Daniel Kietzer, the Head of Sustainability at Rheaply said.

Ren DeCherney explained that circularity is a great way to create new business opportunities. Circular pathways offer brands have a chance to extend the customer journey beyond the first point of sale and reengage their client throughout the lifecycle of the product, creating a stronger relationship and building brand loyalty.

Each panelist shared how they are integrating circularity into their businesses, including:

Katie Chapman, Haworth

Katie shared Haworth’s award-winning closed-loop recycling system for its best-selling Fern chair. She explained this began when Haworth worked to get the Zody II task chair Cradle to Cradle Certified® (the first task chair to be certified under Version 4.0!) and through the certification process created a take-back program. This spurred them to explore a take-back program for the Fern chair and to work with their recycling partners

to create a first-of-its-kind closed loop recycling program: old chairs are taken back, dismantled, and processed into new material that feeds directly into production. The initiative reduced the chair’s carbon footprint by 10%—and because the recycled content is built into the product, every Fern chair in black finishes now automatically supports circularity.

Sneh Kumar, Arconic

For Kawneer, an Arconic company, the story starts with aluminum, which is an “infinitely recyclable” material. Sneh shared that about 75% of all aluminum ever produced is still in use today. Arconic taps into that existing recycling stream by designing building products that not only last decades but can also be separated and returned into the existing aluminum recycling infrastructure at end-of-life. The company works closely with suppliers, customers, and recyclers to ensure that aluminum and other components, like thermal breaks and glass, remain part of the value chain.

Daniel Kietzer, Rheaply

Daniel described a partnership with Armstrong World Industries to rethink the take-back of ceiling tiles. They took a “rule of 3’s” approach: ensuring a product was reused within 300 miles of the site, that there were at least 3 new end markets, and that the new product was sold within 3 weeks. Rheaply found that by reframing waste material as a product and packaging it attractively they helped to reframe the perception of a second use product, opened up new lines of business and expanded recovery opportunities beyond traditional take-back programs. Their tech platform adds a crucial data layer, allowing companies to map where products are installed and helping identify the most effective recovery strategies.

Landon Borders, Game Change

As co-founder of Game Change, Landon is building a regional circular economy in Kentucky and Tennessee - two states experiencing explosive manufacturing growth (and the waste challenges that come with it). Game Change brings together over 50 organizations, including major manufacturers, universities, and communities, to coordinate R&D, infrastructure, reverse logistics, and workforce development. The goal: to invent and scale the technologies needed to activate circularity in one of America’s most important manufacturing hubs.

A recurring theme across the panel was the importance of bringing the right people to the table early.

• Internal leadership and business units must buy in, said Katie, noting that even PR managers can become unlikely but powerful allies in translating sustainability into a story that resonates both internally and to customers.

• Suppliers are critical partners, especially when new systems rely on their willingness to try something different. Every panelist emphasized that getting suppliers on board can sometimes take years, but continuing to engage with them can lead to big successes.

• Manufacturers and supply chain partners are often surprisingly open about their waste challenges, Landon shared, especially when given the chance to collaborate in a pre-competitive environment.

• Customers and recyclers must not be overlooked. As Sneh emphasized, even perfectly designed products won’t deliver circularity if people don’t recycle them or if systems aren’t in place to process them.

• And data is becoming the connective tissue, helping companies understand where products are, how they’re used, and what happens at the end of their life, said Daniel.

Despite the challenges, all the panelists are energized by the creativity and collaboration happening in circularity today. Each shared what’s getting them pumped:

• Katie is energized by seeing the “aha moments” when engineers visit recyclers and realize the impacts of their work, and how small changes, like labeling materials in terms recyclers can easily differentiate, make a big difference.

• Daniel is inspired by the network of passionate people who are always ready to workshop wild ideas and connect others to solutions.

• Landon is proud to see Game Change evolve from an idea scribbled on a napkin to a thriving consortium with hundreds of committed stakeholders from many different regions in Kentucky.

• Sneh finds joy in educating architects and designers, helping them look beyond recycled content alone to understand the bigger picture of embodied carbon, durability, and systems thinking.

The panel closed with a rapid-fire round of advice. Here are their top takeaways:

Do’s

• Take risks, ask “what if,” and don’t let perfection get in the way of progress.

• Start small, measure impact, and build good data from the beginning.

• Engage the right stakeholders early and align with business priorities.

• Think in systems—circularity doesn’t work in isolation.

Don’ts

• Don’t give up if progress feels slow.

• Don’t operate in a silo—collaboration is essential.

• Don’t shy away from making a clear business case and ROI argument.

• Don’t ignore customer behavior; the best design fails if the product ends up in the trash.

As moderator Ren DeCherney summed up, circularity isn’t one single circle, it’s more like the Olympic rings, overlapping and interconnected. The companies that thrive will be the ones that embrace this complexity, build partnerships, and reimagine what it means to design products for the future.

Because in the end, circularity isn’t just about waste, it’s about creating resilient businesses, healthier communities, and a enconomy where resources keep working for us, not against us.