IKONE RENEW : Extend the life cycle of textiles and limit the environmental impacts

Company and project background

IKONE is a French SME based in Sorgues, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, specialised in B2B textile customisation. We provide textile printing and embroidery solutions for companies, public organisations, brands, events and clubs.
Our IKONE Circular project aims to develop a circular service dedicated to the end-of-life of customised professional textiles. Instead of considering the sale of a garment as the end of our relationship with the customer, we want to accompany the textile throughout its life cycle.
The service combines the collection of used IKONE textiles, repair where possible, reuse and material recovery through specialised partners, together with environmental reporting for our customers.
The feasibility study supported by Up2Circ allowed us to analyse the market, technical requirements, economic viability, environmental and social impacts, potential partners and the regulatory context before launching the service at scale.

What motivated you to make your business more circular?

The textile sector has a significant environmental impact, and we believe that our responsibility does not stop when a customised garment is delivered to the customer.
This approach builds on the work we have already been doing at IKONE. We have been carrying out our carbon footprint assessments since 2020, and we now calculate the carbon footprint of our products, with this information included directly in our quotations.
We have also identified a clear opportunity among our B2B customers. Companies and public organisations increasingly need to demonstrate their environmental performance, particularly through ESG reporting, responsible procurement and sustainability criteria in tenders.
The next logical step was therefore to understand what happens to our textiles after they have been used and to offer our customers a concrete solution to facilitate their end-of-life management.
IKONE Circular aims to provide a turnkey circular service that makes the process as simple as possible for the customer. The objective is to enable customers to easily return their used professional textiles without having to find collection, sorting or recovery solutions themselves. IKONE coordinates the process and ensures traceability of the flows, while specialised partners handle the different stages of recovery. At the same time, we wanted to design this service with the real constraints of an SME of around 20 employees in mind.
IKONE is not looking to create a new industrial collection or recycling activity. Instead, we intend to rely on a network of specialised partners and focus our internal resources on what we do best: customer relationships, coordination, traceability and environmental monitoring.
Our objective is therefore not simply to “recycle more”. It is to make circularity accessible, simple and measurable for our customers, while building an operational model that is realistic and sustainable for IKONE. Priority will be given to extending the lifetime of textiles through repair and reuse whenever possible, before directing textiles that can no longer be reused towards appropriate recovery channels.

Implementation Process

What were the main objectives of your feasibility study?

The main objective was to determine whether IKONE Circular could become a technically feasible, economically viable and commercially relevant service for IKONE and its customers.
We therefore assessed :

• the market potential and customer demand;
• the different circular business models that could be developed;
• the logistics required to collect used textiles;
• potential partners for collection, repair, reuse and recycling;
• the costs and potential revenues of the service;
• the environmental and social impacts;
• the regulatory framework;
• the indicators required to monitor the performance of the service.

We also defined measurable targets for the first three years. By year three, our central scenario aims to reach around 40 IKONE Circular customers, collect 1.5 tonnes of textiles and generate approximately 70 ESG reporting customers. Based on a working assumption of 25 tonnes of CO₂e avoided per tonne of textile collected, this would correspond to an estimated 37.5 tonnes of CO₂ avoided.

What activities did you carry out as part of your project?

The feasibility study involved several complementary activities.
We first analysed our existing customer base and identified the customers most likely to benefit from a circular service. We then conducted market and competitor research and mapped potential circular partners.
We assessed different operational scenarios, from simple collection and recycling to more advanced models combining repair, reuse, recycling and ESG reporting.

We also developed a proposed customer journey based on a dynamic QR code. Customers would be able to request a return when their textiles reach the end of their useful life, generate a return label and send the textiles back to IKONE. The textiles would then be weighed, sorted and directed towards the most appropriate partner.
Finally, we developed financial projections, an environmental impact model, a three-year roadmap and a Business Model Canvas.

What feedback did you receive from stakeholders (customers, suppliers etc.)?

At this stage, we have not yet received direct feedback from customers on the IKONE Circular service, as the project has not been implemented yet.
However, the feasibility study allowed us to identify several customer needs and expectations through our analysis of the existing customer base and the market. We found
that customer needs are not limited to textile collection. Several types of customers are increasingly interested in being able to demonstrate concrete environmental actions and obtain reliable environmental data.
This reinforced our decision to include ESG reporting as an important component of the service, rather than treating textile collection as a standalone activity.
The study also showed that a partnership-based model is more appropriate for IKONE than developing internal recycling or industrial processing capabilities. This would allow us to remain focused on our core business while relying on specialised organisations for collection, repair, reuse and recycling.
The next step will be to test these assumptions in real-life conditions through a pilot project with a limited number of customers. This pilot will allow us to collect direct feedback, test the customer journey and logistics, measure actual collection volumes and costs, and identify any improvements needed before scaling up the service.

Impact & Outcomes

What are the main results and outcomes of the project for your company?

The main outcome was the transformation of an initial idea into a structured and realistic circular business model.
The feasibility study demonstrated that IKONE Circular can be developed without major industrial investment or a fundamental transformation of our existing production facilities.
We identified a network of potential partners, defined the operational process, established a three-year development roadmap and modelled the financial requirements and potential profitability of the service.
The study also helped us define three complementary service components: IKONE Renew for collection and recovery, IKONE Réparation for repair services, and, in the longer term, IKONE Care as a premium repair and maintenance solution.
Most importantly, the project allowed us to move from a simple “recycling” approach towardsa broader vision of circularity and textile life extension.

Did you detect a positive impact of circular transition for your company and for the environment?

Yes. The project creates value on several levels.
For our customers, it provides a practical solution for managing the end-of-life of their professional textiles and generating environmental data that can support their ESG, VSME, responsible procurement and tender requirements.
For IKONE, it creates a new service offering, strengthens customer loyalty and provides an opportunity to differentiate ourselves in the B2B customised textile market.
For the environment, the project aims to extend textile lifetimes through repair and reuse and to improve the recovery of textiles that can no longer be used.

Which changes have you already implemented?

The project is currently moving from feasibility towards implementation.
The feasibility study has already resulted in several concrete changes in the way we approach circularity. We have structured a network of potential partners, defined the
customer journey and identified the digital tools required for traceability and reporting.
The next step is to launch a controlled pilot with a limited number of customers. The initial objective is to test one type of textile flow, validate the logistics and measure the real costs and volumes before scaling up.
The service is therefore designed to grow progressively rather than being launched immediately at full scale.

Lessons learned

What key lessons did you learn regarding circular innovation?

One of the main lessons is that circular innovation does not necessarily require heavy industrial investment. For an SME like IKONE, the most relevant approach is to build the right ecosystem of specialised partners and focus our internal resources on customer relationships, coordination, traceability and data.
We also learned that collecting textiles is only one part of the solution. The real value comes from knowing what happens to the textiles afterwards and being able to provide reliable information to the customer.
Finally, circularity needs to be designed around real customer behaviour. A solution that is technically perfect but too complicated for customers to use will not work at scale.

Did you encounter any challenges?

Yes. The main challenges are related to logistics, collection volumes, cost control and traceability.
Individual textile returns can be expensive and environmentally inefficient if they are not sufficiently consolidated. We therefore identified massification as a key condition for the success of the model.
Another challenge is the diversity of customised textiles and their treatments. Some products may be difficult to recycle because of their materials, constructions or printing techniques.
This is why we do not want to make unsupported claims about fibre-to-fibre recycling. Our approach is to start with controlled textile flows and work with specialised partners before progressively expanding the scope of the service.

If you could do your project again, what would you do differently?

We would broaden our search for customers who could potentially be interested in the service. As part of the study, we identified certain customer profiles based on their sector and category, particularly environmental associations and organisations whose activities are related to sustainable development. This initial approach allowed us to identify customers who could be particularly relevant to the project.
However, if we had had more time, we would have liked to go further by directly engaging with our entire customer base. In particular, we could have sent a questionnaire to all our customers to assess their level of interest in IKONE Circular, their needs regarding the endof-life management of their textiles, and their willingness to use this type of service.
We would also have liked to organise more meetings directly with our customers, in order to present the project, gather their feedback and assess their interest and expectations more accurately. This would have allowed us to obtain more representative feedback from the field before launching the pilot project.

Future plans & recommendations

What are your next steps towards circular transition?

Our next step is to consider launching a pilot phase with a first customer, ideally one of our larger customers, in order to test how the service works under real-life conditions.
This initial experiment will allow us to test the customer journey, collection process, logistics, traceability and textile recovery, while also gathering the first feedback from the customer and identifying any potential difficulties or areas for improvement.
The objective will then be to roll out the service progressively, in stages, starting with a limited number of customers before gradually expanding the programme. This approach will allow us to control costs, adapt the service based on feedback from the field, and ensure that the model is genuinely viable before offering it on a larger scale.
In the longer term, we want IKONE Circular to become an integral part of our customer offering, rather than a standalone initiative.

Is there any advice you would give to other SMEs looking to implement a circular project?

We believe that transitioning to a circular business model is not necessarily a question of resources. An SME does not need to develop everything internally: by identifying the right specialised partners, it can build a solution that is adapted to its capabilities and constraints.
It is also essential to start from the real needs of customers and progressively adapt the solution to their uses. There is no need to try to build a perfect solution from the outset.
Instead, SMEs should take a first concrete step, test it in real-life conditions, learn from the experience and gradually improve the model. We therefore recommend starting small, with a pilot project, measuring the actual costs, impacts and customer feedback, and then developing the solution step by step. Each step can help move towards a model that is more relevant, more effective and better adapted to customer needs.
Finally, it is essential to remain transparent and avoid making environmental claims that cannot be demonstrated.

How can policymakers or financial institutions better support businesses in adopting circular practices?

Financial support is particularly important during the feasibility and experimentation stages, when SMEs need to invest time and resources without yet having a proven business model.
Programmes such as Up2Circ are valuable because they allow companies to investigate new circular models, test assumptions and reduce the risk associated with innovation.
Further support could focus on helping SMEs finance pilot projects, digital traceability tools, environmental data collection and the development of partnerships within local circular ecosystems.

Do you have any additional comments or reflections about your participation in the Up2Circ project?

We started with the idea of creating a take-back solution for textiles at the end of their useful life. The Up2Circ programme gave us the time, framework and support we needed to concretely explore a project that we had been considering for several years, but which we had never really had the opportunity to work on.
This study gave us one key certainty: circularity and business can coexist. We demonstrate that it is possible to build a new commercial service that creates positive value on several levels: for the environment, by extending textile lifetimes and improving their recovery; for our customers, by providing them with a simple solution and reliable data; and for IKONE, by creating a new service offering and a new source of value.
For IKONE, circularity is therefore not simply about adding a recycling service to our existing business. It is about changing the way we think about the relationship between a textile, its user and its end of life, while demonstrating that this transition can also be part of a viable business model.