The furniture industry is strategically important for Italy and Europe. Currently, this sector faces significant challenges related to resource exploitation and the systemic impacts of overproduction and consumption. ACTAS project aims to co-develop and test a servitization model and transition process in the contract furniture sector by engaging different types of actors within the company and its external stakeholders, shifting from traditional product sales to offering product-service systems.
Actas is part of "PE_000004 Made in Italy Circular and Sustainable (MICS)", an Extended Partnership financed by the MUR (Italian Ministry of University and Research) with EU funds under the NextGenerationEU programme.
• Design in Organization
• Design for Sustainability Transitions
• Strategic Design
• Transition Design
• Systemic Design
The objective of ACTAS is to create 'design-driven' strategies, methods and tools contextualised to the contract furniture sector, to support Italian companies and their stakeholders (such as manufacturers, suppliers, brokers and service providers) to transform from product-centric to service-oriented to achieve a more sustainable future! In particular, the project aims to promote these solutions in the hospitality and working space sectors. Thanks to the project actions, it is therefore possible to bring innovation within the furniture sector and at the same time promote a culture of sustainability within companies.
The ACTAS project envisages an initial exploratory phase, where the research aims to gain an in-depth understanding of the contract furniture sector, its current challenges in sustainable transition, and difficulties to develop product-service systems (PSS).By reviewing existing literature and practical applications in the furniture sector, research develops the servitization model and transition processIn a second phase, companies are involved through piloting, which aims to guide the company to design and test the potential of PSS for sustainability. In other words, co-design workshops are held to define with the company the roadmap towards a sustainable transition and hypothetical tangible outputs.
