Product details

Desso is a leading European premium carpet brand that was acquired by Tarkett, a floor-covering company in 2015. Our story traces the brand's journey to integrate the practices of circular economy. In Europe, an estimated 95-97% of used carpets end up in landfills or burnt in incinerators. In 2022, Tarkett used 145,000 tons of recycled materials in production and collected 115,000 tons of end-of-use flooring through its carpet 'take-used-carpet-back' and recycle program. Indeed, Desso is among Europe's first cradle-to-cradle carpet brand in building the necessary infrastructure to support recycling and finding solutions for material recovery after usage. Desso reached a carbon footprint that was at least 6 times lower than the total footprint of its competitors. Such an achievement suggested that the decision to adopt circularity had positioned the firm at the forefront of sustainability within the industry. The case examines cradle-to-cradle economic circularity and its specific challenges and delves into these challenges from the perspective of adapting the entire business model to fit circular economy.