Design, Strategy, and Collaboration: a System an Alternative for Reusing Waste From the Bespoke Furniture Sector

This work describes the proposal of a collaborative inter-organizational network involving different actors operating as a group. The aim was to reuse the waste generated by the custom-made furniture sector, which is very relevant in Brazil. The presented scenario is the city of Uberlandia/MG/Brazil, a medium-sized city, which produces about 30.000m3/year of furniture production waste. The proposed collaborative network involves a furniture micro-enterprise, a primary public school, and a federal University, with the coordination of the last one, linked by design concepts. The theoretical references are based on the building of inter-organizational collaborative networks, Strategic Design, and Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability. The research methodology was based on an action-research process, and the methods were divided into a literature review, case studies, data collection and the development of new and small products. The obtained results are related to the value perception of collaboration among actors and the importance of continuous social innovation practices but also of technological ones. This confirms the feasibility of absorption of new practices into the daily operations both in the microenterprise and the public school as well within the university, as a way of increasing the positive impacts coming from these initiatives and a chance of scaling up the project.