Nowy Styl Sustainability Report 2018-2019

The contracts from the Netherlands government, which we delivered under our brand Rohde & Grahl, allowed us to learn the principles of circular economy. We plan to apply them in our future projects, and ultimately develop a busi- ness model based on them. In 2018, we launched an inter- national project group made up of our employees, which is working to gradually improve our performance in the field of circularity, CO 2 footprint and eco-design. Thanks to its activity, we were awarded the CO 2 Performance Ladder certificate in 2019, and prepared EPD documents for our leading products. We are working on subsequent Envi- ronmental Product Declarations in which we describe in detail the environmental impact of a product throughout its life cycle (LCA). Type III Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is an independently verified and registered document that provides transparent and comparable information on the environmental impact of products at different stages of production and throughout the life cycle. In our projects for the Dutch Government, we took action on each of those loops: > Maintenance – regular tightening and lubrication of components and thorough cleaning of seats. Peri- odic preventive maintenance significantly extends product life and reduces the frequency of repairs. In 2018–2019 we maintained 12,000 pieces of furniture for the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Netherlands Tax and Customs Administration. > Redistribution – a way to find furniture a new owner. Moving the furniture is often the responsibility of our customers, while we support them with disassembly. > Repairs – many of our products have a modular de- sign, and the reason for this is that they can be re- paired with standard tools, without having to replace the entire piece. Where necessary, we can also repair products from other brands, acting in the spirit of cir- cular economy. > Renovation – in practice, this means we restore chairs, adjust frames in tables and countertops, cover them with a new colour or put on a different surface finish. Where possible, renovation also involves making im- provements to the product. In the years covered by the study, we renovated more than 1,000 pieces of furniture. > Modification of intended use – this happens when an original product or its parts are given a new func- tion. Here too, thanks to modularity, we can easily dis- assemble parts of our furniture and find them a new application. > Recycling – when it is no longer possible to use a product, we try to recycle the materials from which it was made. In 2019, we entered into cooperation with Unilin, which is a supplier of chipboards made from wood waste. Their chipboards consist of about 85% of wood salvaged from recycled pallets, packaging and old furniture. About 15% is wood obtained from thin- ning operations, sourced through sustainable forest management, and pre-consumer wood supplied by the timber industry. With Unilin’s help, we recycled 20,000 kg of wood as part of the desktop replacement operation, and we added 100% recycled desktops to our offer. Thanks to the partnership we established, we can proudly say that we are able to fully close the circuit of wooden panels. 41