Sustainability and Quality Management in the Italian Luxury Furniture Sector: A Circular Economy Perspective

Abstract

The growing attention paid to global environmental risks has gradually raised interest, both on the agendas of firms and governments towards the development of new business models such as Circular Economy. This study is focused on the luxury furniture industry and it is aimed at investigating how much furniture companies know about Circular Economy practices, what they specifically do for implementing them and what factors motivate, support or hinder their adoption. The role of product and process certifications in developing such sustainable practices is also analyzed, given their importance for implementing environmentally sustainable practices. The research method is based on a qualitative multiple case study carried out on four Italian companies operating in the luxury furniture industry. A worthy degree of awareness and knowledge of Circular Economy principles emerged from the analysis. Nevertheless, furniture companies analyzed are still little involved in Circular Economy practices, especially concerning reuse and recycle actions, which are particularly important within this perspective. Similarly, very little use of process and product certifications emerged from the study. Therefore, a potential gap seems to arise between the positive attitude towards Circular Economy practices and their actual implementation, which suggests useful implications for both institutions and managers involved in sustainable development processes.

A Framework and Baseline for the Integration of a Sustainable Circular Economy in Offshore Wind

“…Recertification has been proposed in circular economy as a possible enabler for various strategies (e.g., [27,232,233]), giving quality assurances about the processes followed, and the quality of reused, repurposed, refurbished and/or remanufactured components (Sections 4.4 and 4.7) and recovered materials (Sections 4.13 and 4.16). Although recertification is neither without challenges nor a silver bullet to all barriers (e.g., [234][235][236]), it can pre-empt barriers to the uptake of circular economy strategies in offshore wind. Recertification is also important in creating a level playing field internationally, to avoid dynamics such as those observed in metal recycling with illegal exports and rogue operators that undercut quality undertakings and introduce high price dynamics that constrain investment [232].…”

Exploring Barriers for Circularity in the EU Furniture Industry

“…Predominantly consisting of SMEs, the EU furniture industry employs around 1 million European workers and manufactures approximately a quarter of the world's furniture, representing a EUR 84 billion market equating to an EU28 consumption of ~10.5 million tons of furniture per annum [53,54]. Despite a notable degree of knowledge and awareness of CE principles, analyses conducted in the framework of luxury furniture show that the involvement of furniture companies in CE practices, in particular those concerning reuse and recycle actions, is still marginal, and very limited use of process and product certifications has been noted [55]. Furniture-specific system and product certifications as well as their impact and effective value for both furniture manufacturers and end-users require attentive study.…”

Quality Management and Sustainable Development in Local Communes – Evidence from Poland

“…On this basis, it can be concluded that, although the issues of quality management and sustainable development are related and this is reflected in the literature to date, this phenomenon is mainly the subject of research in the context of enterprises or economic sectors (Barbaritano et al, 2019;Nguyen et al, 2018). Even if those articles address the matter of quality management as support to environmental management-system implementation and to managing sustainability, they do not focus on the topic of local governments and they rather concentrate on the theory, and models then on the analyses of large-scale quantitative data (Siva et al, 2016).…”