Status of Circularity & Sustainability at 3 Days of Design
How Copenhagen’s premier design festival is quietly reshaping circular design
Since launching in 2013, Copenhagen’s 3 Days of Design has grown into a reliable pulse check on the direction of global design. This year, as we moved through the city’s design district, something felt different.
Danish design has long valued honest materials and thoughtful functionality. In 2025, that philosophy is meeting growing environmental demands and expectations. Out of that tension, meaningful innovation is beginning to emerge. Beyond the polished showrooms and styled exhibitions, a deeper shift is taking place—one where sustainability is treated less as a slogan and more as a serious design challenge. Some brands are stepping up with bold ideas, while others remain on safer ground, leaning on familiar narratives of recycling or efficiency that, while helpful, stop short of rethinking the system itself.
Here’s what caught our attention.
Waste as Raw Material
Sometimes the most elegant solutions hide in plain sight. NUTERIALS, a Danish startup co-founded by Morten Lund Petersen, discovered theirs in walnut shells, specifically, the 3 million tons discarded globally each year.
“Our vision is that materials should not just be sustainable, but truly regenerative—flowing within circular systems from the start, combining durability with aesthetics for a lasting impact”
Morten Lund Petersen, Co-founder of NUTERIALS
The company has developed a process to transform this abundant waste stream into a bio-composite material that behaves like plastic during manufacturing but biodegrades after use. Their walnut-based lamps demonstrate the material’s potential, offering the moldability and durability of traditional plastics without environmental persistence.
The innovation isn’t just in the material itself, but in identifying an overlooked waste stream and finding a way to give it new life. It’s the kind of lateral thinking that could unlock similar opportunities across industries.
The Modular Revolution
Stykka, founded by Jarl Engelbrecht, approaches circularity from the product design angle with modular furniture systems designed for disassembly and longevity. Their circular kitchen systems can evolve with changing needs, and when components wear out, individual pieces can be replaced rather than discarding entire units.
“The most sustainable products are the ones you never buy and the next best are the ones you never throw away.”
Jarl Engelbrecht, Founder of Stykka
But Engelbrecht’s most revealing insight wasn’t about design but about the industry’s willingness to change. He argues that the furniture industry remains too cautious despite wasting roughly 40% of materials during production and design processes. According to Engelbrecht, there’s a clear business opportunity in circular approaches since green products can achieve near-zero waste levels. He notes that while consumers aren’t yet driving demand for sustainable furniture, that dynamic could shift suddenly, and companies need to be prepared. In his view, circularity will become the essential license to operate in the future furniture market, though the timeline for this transition remains uncertain.
This tension between current market realities and future necessities appeared throughout the festival. Many exhibitors seemed to understand that change was coming but remained uncertain about timing and consumer adoption.
The Service-ification of Furniture
Perhaps the one of the most compelling circular innovations came from LOOPE. The company is challenging the fundamental assumption of furniture ownership with a circular model that treats products as temporary arrangements rather than permanent acquisitions. Here’s how it works: after five years of use, every LOOPE piece can be returned to the company and transformed into something entirely new. A chair becomes a table. A table becomes shelving. Materials never leave the system.
“When you buy a LOOPE piece, you’re not just getting a chair, but also the potential for a table in the future”
Tomek Rygalik, designer at LOOPE
It’s a radical departure from the traditional buy-use-dispose model, and it forces consumers to think about furniture as a service rather than a possession. The challenge, of course, will be educating consumers accustomed to ownership models and building the reverse logistics necessary to make such a system work at scale.
When Design Becomes Activism
Form 22, a newly launched creative studio, is doing something intriguing: using high-end collectible design as climate communication. Their philosophy is deceptively simple: design can “break the silence” around the climate crisis. Each piece they create doubles as a conversation starter about environmental issues.
“We know there is a climate crisis, but we don’t know what to do. This is the role of design: to find solutions, start the conversation, and ultimately inspire action.”
Saskia Hübner, the co-founder and designer of Form 22
Their lounge chair, crafted from discarded materials and apple leather, exemplifies this approach. It’s beautiful enough to warrant a place in any contemporary living room, yet its very existence poses questions about waste, materials, and our relationship with objects. Whether this approach can scale beyond the design cognoscenti remains to be seen, but it represents a fascinating intersection of aesthetics and activism.
Looking Ahead
Being circular is the license to play in the future
Jarl Engelbrecht, Founder of Stykka
The Danish design community has always excelled at making complex ideas feel approachable and beautiful. If this year’s 3 Days of Design is any indication, they’re now applying that same sensibility to one of the most complex challenges of our time. Whether these innovations can scale beyond Copenhagen’s design district and influence broader manufacturing and consumption patterns remains the critical question.
The most encouraging development wasn’t any single innovation, but the collaborative spirit emerging around circular design challenges. Conversations frequently touched on concepts like digital product passports, new bio-based materials, and business model innovations that could make circular approaches more mainstream.
For now, the seeds of a more circular design future are being planted in Danish soil, nurtured by the same commitment to craft and purpose that has defined the region’s design legacy. The question isn’t whether sustainable design can be beautiful—Copenhagen has answered that definitively. The question is whether beautiful design can help save the planet.
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