7.5
Francesca Toolkit
Circular Platform Model
The Circular Design Evaluation Worksheet helps furniture companies assess how well a product supports circular economy principles through its physical design and technical architecture. The tool enables organisations to evaluate product modularity, disassembly, repairability, refurbishment potential, and material recovery capabilities. It supports companies in identifying design weaknesses that limit circular operations and helps prioritise improvements that extend product lifecycles and improve resource recovery. The worksheet also supports integration with Digital Product Passports (DPPs) and other lifecycle documentation systems by structuring key product and material information in a systematic way.
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Phase
Format
Expertise
Objective
The Circular Platform Model supports furniture companies in designing or participating in digital infrastructures that enable circular transactions, lifecycle management, and ecosystem coordination.
The tool helps organizations structure how digital platforms can facilitate activities such as product tracking, resale, refurbishment, reuse, maintenance services, and material recovery. It clarifies the roles of different actors, the types of circular transactions enabled by the platform, and the data flows required to support lifecycle management, including integration with Digital Product Passports (DPP).
By structuring these elements, the tool allows companies to evaluate whether to build their own platform, join an existing one, or collaborate within an ecosystem platform.
What the Tool Is
The Circular Platform Model is a conceptual design canvas used to map the architecture of a circular digital ecosystem supporting furniture lifecycle management.
It helps organisations define:
- how circular transactions occur
- which actors participate
- what data must be exchanged
- how value is created and captured across the lifecycle
The model also helps identify the digital functionalities required to enable circular operations such as product tracking, refurbishment workflows, service scheduling, resale marketplaces, and recycling coordination.
The output is a structured platform concept that clarifies governance, actors, value flows, and required digital capabilities.
When to Use the Tool
This tool is particularly useful when companies are:
- Developing furniture-as-a-service or leasing models
- Implementing Digital Product Passports
- Enabling reuse, refurbishment, or resale ecosystems
- Collaborating with refurbishers, recyclers, or logistics providers
- Evaluating whether to create or join a circular platform
It typically follows earlier toolkit phases such as circular business model design and ecosystem mapping.
Expected Output
The result of the exercise is a Circular Platform Architecture Map describing:
- Ecosystem actors
- Circular transactions
- Lifecycle data flows
- Digital functionalities
- Governance model
- Revenue mechanisms
This architecture can be used to guide:
- Platform development
- Ecosystem collaboration agreements
- Digital infrastructure design
- Investment decisions.
Define the Circular Objective
Participants identify the circular activity the platform should enable (e.g., furniture leasing ecosystem, resale marketplace).
Map Ecosystem Participants
Identify all actors interacting through the platform.
Identify Circular Transactions
List the key exchanges that must occur between actors.
Define Data Requirements
Determine the lifecycle information required to support transactions and compliance.
Identify Digital Functionalities
Define the digital tools necessary to enable these exchanges.
Design Governance and Value Capture
Clarify platform ownership, governance, and revenue mechanisms.
Office furniture remanufacturer: An office furniture remanufacturer establishes a take-back logistics system and refurbishment facility to recover used workstations from corporate fit-outs and return them to the market — an operating model comparable to Rype Office.
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