Professional refurbishment has already been implemented primarily for electrical appliances (e.g. mobile phones, laptops). Professional refurbishment is also of interest for office furniture, as although it is generally designed to serve for a long time, it is often discarded after a short period of use. The RefurMO project is therefore investigating which framework conditions are required for the professional refurbishment of office furniture to extend the product life cycle and conserve resources.
In the "CircularPro" project, a continuing education program for SMEs is being developed that is intended to enable product developers, product designers and development engineers to design products that are recyclable. Modules are developed with a focus on the basics and framework conditions of the circular economy, recyclable materials, circular design and construction principles and circular-based product-service systems. With these modules, participants should build up competencies in order to effectively develop sustainable and recyclable products and product-service systems in the future. In order to establish the practical relevance, case studies and practical exercises are developed for all modules, which supplement the theoretical content. The FHWN Innovation Lab provides a laboratory environment that can be used for prototyping and illustrating recyclable products. This project is funded by the FFG as part of the Innovation Camps program.