Textile Co-Creation Lab
In 2019, BMI Taiwan and the Taiwan Textile Research Institute launched the Textile Co-Creation Lab. Eight years and more than 120 companies later, the Lab keeps doing one thing: helping each company find its role in a circular value chain, and turning ideas for collaboration into small experiments that actually run.
The challenge
Most SMEs have already started on circularity. Saving energy, saving material and recycling in their own operations are daily practice, and many have ideas for circular materials, products or services. Where they get stuck is everything after the idea: validating it, landing it and scaling it. The moment a transition touches new material sources, circular design, repurposed offcuts, recycled material sales or rental services, the number of roles multiplies. A company has to know what it can contribute, which capabilities it lacks and which partners it needs. One 2026 team put it to the test with offcut commercialization: a women's empowerment organization, a bio-based dye maker, a recycled material supplier and a circular procurement integrator, four companies that had no idea their capabilities were complementary until the Lab connected them.
Our approach
We help companies turn a circular ambition into an experiment they can run, in three moves. Narrow the challenge to a scope that can be validated. Clarify each company's role, capability gaps and missing partners. Run a small test before anyone rebuilds a process or commits capital. With the Circular Transition Goals and Roadmap, teams explore opportunities across circular procurement, manufacturing, design, services and recycling management, then design experiments small enough to run and honest enough to learn from. Eight years of them: a textile-to-textile polyester sorting pilot in 2022, a digital fabric platform in 2023, offcuts turned into boiler fuel and surplus fabric into furniture panels, digital product passports in 2025, and a single-material children's backpack with circular rental in 2026.
The results
- More than 120 companies through the Lab since 2019, across eight years of co-creation.
- More than 30 cross-company business model experiments launched, from textile-to-textile recycling to product-as-a-service.
- A standing dialogue between manufacturers, brands, recyclers, technology providers, government, verification bodies and industry experts.
- Companies that know their role, their capability gaps and the partners they need.
- Collaboration ideas turned into small-scale experiments before major process changes or capital commitments.
- A network that now reaches furniture, ICT, outdoor education, social enterprise, bio-based dyes, chemicals and recycling equipment.
The method stayed with the team. It always does.
Want resultslike these?
Explore the possibilities with Patrick van der Pijl and the BMI team. Every big shift starts with a conversation.