Inside Koskela’s circular economy plan — and why the brand dropped carbon offsets

Sasha Titchkosky knows not every business can be like Koskela, the furniture manufacturer that has created heirloom-quality pieces for over 20 years.

But every small business can learn something from Koskela’s pledge to become a fully circular business by 2027, and its candid report charting a course to environmental sustainability.

Koskela, which creates upmarket furniture for the home, workplace, and classroom, revealed its plan to fully embrace circularity in October.

“That means nothing we make will be wasted,” Titchkosky said in the 18-page report. “Everything will be repairable, reusable or – as a last resort – recyclable.”

Speaking to SmartCompany, Titchkosky explained what makes Koskela’s approach to circularity different to other brands — and her hope that other companies can implement the lessons gleaned from her own sustainability journey.

Redesign and repurpose

The ‘circular economy‘ imagines a world where waste is reduced or eliminated during the production of goods, with those same goods repurposed, refurbished, or recycled at the end of their natural lifespan.

There is no standard definition for what makes a business ‘circular’, let alone when Australia will actually consider itself to have a fully circular economy.

However, in its October 2023 report, Koskela hews to the principles put forward by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation:

• Eliminate waste and pollution
• Circulate products and materials (at their highest value)
• Regenerate nature.

“It’s really around how we can minimise the pressure we’re putting on our natural environment by extending our use of raw materials for as long as possible,” Titchkosky said.

For Koskela, eliminating waste happens at the design stage.

The company wants its furniture to be constructed of 90% recycled or repurposed materials by 2026, and is working with suppliers to maximise sheet yield — that is, the usable portion of any one panel, fabric spool, or component before it is cut to size.

At the production level, Koskela is liaising with its manufacturing partners to enhance their sustainable practices.

That includes implementing wool composites made from byproducts of the lamb industry, which was previously deemed unsuitable for use in clothing or furniture.

At the end of the product lifecycle, Koskela is planning to launch a ‘rehome’ system, where the brand buys back old pieces, refurbishes them, and releases them back into the market for a lower price than a new item.

“One of the things that we’ve thought about, particularly being in Australia where the distance is often quite vast, is how we can redesign our products to make them really easy for consumers and also our corporate clients to be able to refurbish easily,” Titchkosky said.

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Koskela has already refurbished boardroom tables used by Macquarie Bank, but it is intensely focused on furniture for the home.

“By the beginning of the new year, we’ll be able to announce that every one of our sofas will now have removable covers,” she said.

“That’s the part that shows the most wear and tear. Not only does it benefit consumers by being much faster, much cheaper to get longevity out of their pieces, but it also has a really big carbon benefit.

“So with one of our sofas, we’ve estimated that just putting a new cover on, instead of getting a whole new sofa, is only 18% of the total carbon footprint for that product.”

Moving from carbon offsets

Crucially, Koskela’s circularity report highlights what the brand is not doing.

On top of its 2027 circularity push, the brand wants to achieve absolute zero carbon emissions by 2035.

Notably, the company has moved away from carbon offset schemes, in favour of what Titchkosky called a more direct approach to limiting carbon emissions and overall environmental impact.

“It felt like we, with a relatively small budget for an organisation, we’d be much better placed putting that money into actually decarbonising our company,” she said.

“And that really then started the push to move towards circularity, because for me, that is really the only way that I can see us ever achieving a goal of getting to absolute zero carbon emissions while continuing to create products.”

The work to drag down Koskela’s carbon emissions extends to its third-party transportation services, and the brand is investigating the potential of electric trucks to cut down on its Scope 3 emissions.

“We’re not perfect, but we’re ambitious”

Titchkosky recognises those are lofty goals, but says the brand is well-placed to achieve them.

The October report wasn’t just to advertise Koskela’s efforts, either, she said. It was her hope that other brands could look at the lessons learnt, and apply them to their own circumstances.

“I would love to see more companies doing things like what we’re doing,” she said.

“I totally acknowledge we’re not perfect, but we’re ambitious, and we’re trying.

“And the more we can share our journey, the more I hope it helps other businesses also transition their operations, and look at the systemic changes that we really desperately need to make.”

You can find the Koskela report here.