Would you throw away a whole sofa because of one stain? Sometimes, we have to, but those giant pieces of furniture wreak havoc on landfills. That’s why Dunelm designed its Full Circle Sofa with modular pieces that can be swapped out, repaired, and even recycled. Lisa Ly, Senior Sustainability Manager at Dunelm, one of the UK’s largest home furnishings retailers, explains this and other groundbreaking initiatives in its “Good and Circular” approach.
Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff: 800 years ago, in the city of Leicester, England, a market opened just south of the clock town. It was the kind of place where you could buy almost anything—food, clothes, flowers, and, eventually, home goods.
Lisa Ly: Dunelm started in 1979 as a market store in Leicester Market and was founded by Bill and Jean Adlai. They invested in ready-made curtains and a seconds curtains, bedding, and slippers. So seconds is basically where it’s a run-off or the end of production products that others might not want to sell. And they bought them and sold them on the market.
RLS: That’s Lisa Ly, senior sustainability manager at Dunelm, which today is one of the UK’s most trusted brands for homeware and furniture.
LL: So, Dunelm is, in fact, the name of a house where Bill, Jean, and the family lived. We used to be called Dunelm Mill, and the “mill” comes from the history of textiles, but we dropped the “mill.” But you still hear our customers call us Dunelm Mill, which is quite unique.
RLS: Some old habits take a long time to break. And in fact, there’s a lot of value in longevity. In today’s episode, we’ll get an in-house look at how Dunelm prolongs their furniture’s lifespan through a groundbreaking approach to circularity…
To learn more about Dunelm, visit www.dunelm.com.
Check out Dunelm’s line of Full Circle Sofas here.
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Produced by Cascale and Hueman Group Media.
Views and opinions expressed during the podcast are those of the individuals expressing them and do not necessarily reflect those of Cascale or Hueman Group Media.
Kaley Roshitsh, SAC editorial director, attended the Sourcing Journal Fall Summit for a deep dive into sourcing, as the pinnacle holiday sales season approaches. The event convened executives across sustainability disciplines for sessions on the politics of trade, managing volatility in supply chains, benchmarking and scaling circularity while securing garment provenance, among others.
Circularity Definition “Disconnect”
At the conference, presentations underscored the fact that circularity is still top of mind – but circularity awareness is lagging despite perceived momentum, according to a 2023 circularity survey from Cotton Incorporated and Sourcing Journal. Melissa Bastos, director of corporate strategy and insights at Cotton Inc., reported findings of an “industry disconnect” and “a lot of confusion” around circular fashion. Per the survey, some 55 percent of consumer respondents were “unsure” of circularity’s meaning yet 40 percent were also “interested” in repair, resale and circular clothing avenues.
Meanwhile, 84 percent of industry executives said circularity influences design choices, and 69 percent reported interest in donating old products to be upcycled into housing insulation – the objective of Cotton Inc.’s “Blue Jeans Go Green” circularity program. Cotton Inc., along with Better Cotton, Cotton Connect, and the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol are members of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition.
Manufacturer-First Focus
Manufacturing challenges were also a hot topic. “There is a gap in the market between what is demanded and what is required,” said Ebru Debbag, executive director-global sales and marketing at Soorty Enterprises Pvt. Ltd., in a session on supply chain volatility. She called for a stronger leadership proposition to prioritize suppliers in the decarbonization journey. According to Debbag, the company set their science-based emissions target of 54 percent, and aligned it with a transition to organic cotton.
Throughout the day, panelists agreed that suppliers are challenged by the costs of decarbonization. “We can’t go green if we’re in the red,” said Jasmin Malik Chua, sourcing and labor editor at Sourcing Journal, quoting a separate conversation with a manufacturer source.
Compliance, Provenance of Growing Concern
At a panel on compliance, speakers agreed that transparency is paramount to sustainable fashion brands. “The amount of visibility that is expected is only increasing,” said Marissa Brock, director, marketing and policy at Sourcemap, who was joined by executive panelists from Supima, Oritain and Alice & Olivia. Buxton Midyette, vice president marketing and promotions at Supima, said tracing Supima fibers, and fibers generally, is a “longstanding challenge,” and not one without its costs. Supima depends on 300 family farms in the U.S. for their fiber, and all hold a vested interest in identifying and tracing their cotton fibers in depth.
Ben Tomkins, vice president of retail sales at Oritain, added there is a “superficial level of compliance on supplier declarations,” which highlights the need for alignment at the ground level so suppliers aren’t stuck with duplicate audits.
In a separate conversation about textile recycling, Bryan Timm, Recover’s chief strategy officer, explained the company’s ongoing partnership with Oritain to identify cotton waste streams. “[The] Holy grail is to recycle the clothes you’re wearing, [and the] only way to do that is design with circularity,” Timm said. He also noted that the policy gaps around circular fashion are multifold but relevant to both Democrat and Republican lawmakers, who see the U.S. Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) as “100 percent bipartisan.” However, he emphasized, “as a supplier, you have to be responsible for what happens in your supply chain.”
