A Sustainability Roadmap for Derako

Abstract

Derako is a company specialized in designing and manufacturing wooden suspended ceilings, wall panels and façade panels. Derako faces the challenge of high production of waste, over 50% of their bought wood ends up as waste, additionally over 6500 kilograms of plastic waste is being produced. In their industry, Derako is not alone. The construction industry is considered a highly polluting industry, responsible for 50% of all raw material usage and 35% of the CO2 generated in the Netherlands. The industry is reacting by slowly adopting ways to improve their sustainable performace. One of the main topics is the Circular Economy. This thesis will provide an answer to the research question at hand, namely, how can Derako become a more sustainable business in the future? It will aim to do so by closely collaborating with Derako employees, to ensure a good fit. In order to fully understand the industry Derako is operating in, a thorough analysis has been conducted. Several stakeholders in their process, such as architects, contractors and installers have been interviewed, alongside several employees of Derako. The sales process of Derako proves to be complex, several of the aforementioned stakeholders influence the decision making, while their interests vary greatly. As the construction industry is developing, several trends are showing. An analysis of these trends has uncovered potentially interesting directions for Derako to pursue. The Circular Economy would be the foundation of this development, as it shows to be a highly relevant and promising topic in the industry, providing many options for product development. Together with Derako, through the means of co-creations session, the trend directions were discussed. The direction of flexible and modular buildings was deemed most relevant to develop into a vision. During this co-creation, participants set out to develop a vision which would be guiding for the strategy and roadmap. During the development of the strategy, the vision would be split in two parts. One part focussing on waste reduction, the other focussing on a circular product line. The waste reduction plan has been developed as a method to provide tangible handles for waste reduction. The current waste streams, mainly wood and plastic waste have been mapped roughly. Tests have been designed to collect more detailed information on those waste streams. The waste reduction plan sets specific goals in three horizons with the final horizon ending in 2030. For the non-renewable waste, a reduction of 50% has been set, as for wood waste a reduction of 90% has been set. In these goals, finding high value applications for the wood waste is also considered a reduction. The circular product roadmap describes the development of a circular product line, in which a standardized product is central. This product minimizes variation on materials, sizes and finished, therefore creating a product that facilitates easy reuse. Alongside the circular product line, a return shipping method has been developed. This has been treated facilitate wasteless shipping of Derako product, drastically reducing the amount of plastic and wood waste. Combined, the waste reduction plan and circular product roadmap provide Derako with practical handles to drastically increase sustainable performance.