Fashion, clothing and textiles, Furniture

What is it? Kvadrat produces high quality textiles. Its initiative "Kvadrat Really" upcycles end-of-life textiles into premium-quality materials for interior and industrial-scale projects like a Textile Tabletop™, Textile Board and Textile Felt. 

Why is this important? Textile production consumes significant amounts of water and energy, and, depending on the type of material (e.g., wool, polyester), contributes to significant amounts of carbon emissions. It contributes to toxic chemicals use in agriculture and manufacturing stages such as pre-treatment and dyeing, and waste volumes of textiles are on the rise (Allwood et al., 2006; Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2017). It is estimated that only 25% of the 95% of textiles that can be recycled are actually being recycled (Kvadrat Really, 2025a). In this way, the industry generates significant amounts of waste and fails to capture potential economic value as well. 

Main resource strategy: Revaluing the loop by using old fabrics and turning them into new products like table tops. 

Other resource strategies: Closing loops by using ocean plastics and turning them into new fabrics. Closing the loop in other ways, e.g., by collecting textile waste during the production process and reusing this again. 

Business model aspects:

  • Value Proposition: Kvadrat aims to offer long-lasting textiles products that may last up to around 25 years (Kvadrat interview, 2025). In reality, textiles are often in use for about 10-20 years. Its products are in the higher price segment with a high quality, long lifetime model. To close the loop, it offers a couple of models: e.g., tabletops and boards made out of old textiles and textiles made out of ocean-bound plastic. The aim is to offer long warrantees again with these products. Products made out of reclaimed materials come at a higher cost and are therefore offered at a higher price. Customers can also use its products to meet carbon emissions targets for building renovation projects for instance.
  • Value Creation & Delivery: Kvadrat collaborates with its customers to take back textiles for reuse in other products like tabletops, boards e.g., used in customer shops, and felt. It also works with other companies like Aquafil to create fabrics out of ocean-bound plastics.
  • Value Capture: Kvadrat operates a premium pricing model where a high quality product with a long warrantee is offered at a higher price. In addition, a service and maintenance model is operated where customers can pay for a service contract which includes maintenance and repairs.

Strategies for degrowth/ sufficiency: To ensure a longer lifetime, the Textile Tabletop™, made from used textiles, comes with a 5-year warrantee. Service and maintenance contracts are also offered along with its products to extend their lifetimes.

Business model experimentation practices: Kvadrat operates in the business-to-business sphere where it sells textile as an input to other finished goods, like furniture, but started experimenting with its own products like table tops and shades. It has also started experimenting with a take-back system for its shades (cold and heat blocking insulating shades for buildings which are harder to recover, because the textile is made out of a mix of fabric and aluminium). Kvadrat collaborates amongst others with universities to experiment with material recovery options for these shades.

Sustainability outcomes: Kvadrat Really's Textile Tabletop™ has an estimated 30% reduction in CO2-equivalent emissions compared to a conventional tabletop, based on a lifecycle assessment including the stages from material extraction to a finished tabletop (Kvadrat Really, 2025b). In 2025, Kvadrat reduced the CO2 footprint of its Textile Tabletop™ from 13.3 kg/m2 to 8.4 kg CO2 (Kvadrat Really, 2025c).

Sources:

Allwood, J. M., Laursen, S. E., De Rodríguez, C. M., & Bocken, N. M. (2006). Well dressed. The present and future sustainability of clothing and textiles in the United Kingdom. IfM, Cambridge, UK.

Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2017). A new textiles economy: Redesigning fashion’s future. available at: https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/a-new-textiles-economy 

Kvadrat (2025). Interview with supply chain experts at Kvadrat, 16 September 2025. 

Kvadrat Really (2025a). About us. Accessed 17 September 2025 at: https://www.kvadrat.dk/en/kvadrat-really/about

Kvadrat Really (2025b). Textile Tabletop™. Accessed 17 September 2025 at: https://www.kvadrat.dk/en/kvadrat-really/kvadrat-really-products/textile-tabletop

Kvadrat Really (2025c). A pioneering initiative. Accessed 17 September 2025 at: https://www.kvadrat.dk/en/kvadrat-really

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About project Circular X

Project Circular X is about ‘Experimentation with Circular Service Business Models’. It is an ambitious research project funded by the European Research Council (ERC) which supports top researchers from anywhere in the world. Project CIRCULAR X runs from 2020-2027. The project is led by Principal Investigator (PI) Prof Dr Nancy Bocken, who is joined by a multidisciplinary team of researchers at Maastricht Sustainability Institute (MSI), Maastricht School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University. The project cooperates with businesses who want to innovate towards the circular economy.

Project Circular X addresses a new and urgent issue: experimentation with circular service business models (CSBMs). Examples of such new business models include companies shifting from selling products to selling services and introducing lifelong warrantees to extend product lifetimes. However, CSBMs are far from mainstream and research focused on experimentation is little understood.  The research aims to conduct interdisciplinary research with 4 objectives:

  1. Advancing understanding of CSBMs; their emergence and impacts
  2. Advancing knowledge on CSBM experimentation
  3. Developing CSBM experimentation tools
  4. Designing and deploying CSBM experimentation labs
Funding source

This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, grant agreement No. 850159. 

Using of this information

When you refer to this case, please use the following source:

Circular X. (2025) Case study: Kvadrat - multiple value streams. Accessed from www.circularx.eu

 

 

 

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