From Circular Thinking to Real-World Change: Building the Circular Economy — One Mattress at a Time

On August 4–6, nornnorn Founder & CEO Nophol Techaphangam joined 60 early- to mid-career circular economy academics, industry professionals, NGO leaders, and policymakers from around the world at the UK Royal Academy of Engineering’s Frontiers Symposium 2025 in Bangkok to explore how engineering, entrepreneurship, and sustainability can intersect to build real-world circular systems.

Under the theme The Business Case for Circular Economy, the symposium brought together young thought leaders and spurred them to move beyond theory — and build scalable solutions for impact.

Redefining Mattress Ownership Through Systems Thinking

During one of the sessions, Nophol presented nornnorn not as a mattress business, but a systems business.

“You can’t build circularity by just swapping out materials. You need to redesign value chains, financing, logistics, and even mindsets,” he shared.

At the core of nornnorn’s model:

  • Product-as-a-service: High-quality, hotel-grade mattresses available on a subscription basis from just THB89/month.

  • Take-back logistics: End-of-subscription retrieval of mattresses for recycling purposes at no additional cost to the subscribers.

  • Green digital financing: The acquisition of the products subscribed for is financed with digital investment token issuances secured by the cash flow the subscriptions generate.

  • Environmental impact assessments: Continual life cycle assessments (LCAs) confirm the impact achieved by the model.

Bridging Science, Capital, and Policy

What set the symposium apart was its interdisciplinary format. Over the 2.5 days, participants collaborated across nationalities and disciplines in co-creation sessions. A glimpse into how Bangkok manages its wastes provided by Pornphrom Vikitsreth, Adviser to the Governor of Bangkok and Bangkok’s Chief Sustainability Officer, added to the highly interactive co-learning experience.

A Commitment to Inclusive Innovation

Grounding the symposium was equity in innovation. Circular models shouldn’t only benefit the top 1% — they must serve all regardless of income levels and backgrounds.

For nornnorn, this includes:

  • Affordable subscription fees

  • Lighter, safer mattress models for the elderlies

  • Service availability in suburban and rural areas.

“Circularity is about trust,” Nophol explained. “And trust is built when you design for people — not just for profit.”

Final Thoughts

As the world races to rethink resource use, the Frontiers Symposium showed what’s possible when science, engineering, and entrepreneurship converge.

For nornnorn, it was another chance to learn from other Circular Economy professionals how our model could be further refined and expanded to make it more circular, scalable, sustainable, and impactful.

Read more about nornnorn’s impact: www.nornnorn.com/impact


Bo Pedersen