Partners: ABLOY (manufacturer), City of Tampere, Tampereen Tilapalvelut Oy (property owner / facility services)
Country: Finland
What was piloted?
The City of Tampere is replacing an old school in the Tammela district, with a new one planned for 2028, under zoning regulation promoting material reuse. The pilot tested whether dismantled Abloy locking solutions from the old school could be refurbished at the factory and reinstalled in the new building. The team carried out a full on-site inventory, disassembled selected units, tested several factory refurbishment methods (surface treatment as the main candidate), and produced a first cost comparison between a refurbished unit and a new product.
Challenges and how they were tackled
Locking solution for the new school not yet decided. The team responded by treating the pilot as a structured learning case and lining up a second, larger project as the next test ground.
Product compatibility across generations. Some older product generations were not compatible with current spare parts or standards, so planned part replacements could not be done. Most of the products remained functional, and surface re-treatment was applied instead. While replacing wear components was not possible for all products included in this pilot, it is feasible for most product types.
CE marking and compliance. There is no clear guidance today on how factory refurbishment affects CE marking. The team flagged this as a precondition for scaling and is engaging with the wider industry initiative on the topic.
Key learnings
Factory refurbishment is technically feasible and integrates into existing production: surface treatment delivers high coating quality and good durability with no additional investment.
Cross-stakeholder collaboration was the success factor, keeping the pilot moving when the decision on the future reuse became uncertain.
Start with a good inventory and verify regulatory and technical requirements before any refurbishment.
The cost case is promising but not yet conclusive, and the main blocker is market demand, not technology.
Zoning regulations for material reuse are a driver. In Tammela, local zoning rules requiring material reuse were a prerequisite for the pilot, making it natural to explore refurbishment instead of defaulting to new products.
Solution scaling probability: 5 / 5
Abloy plans to scale the refurbishment process through a larger building project and a wider industry initiative on business models, refurbishment and CE marking for access solutions.
Surface treatment proved technically feasible and easy to integrate into our existing processes, with high coating quality and good durability. The pilot was successful as a learning project, but compliance, product compatibility and market demand still need to be solved before refurbishment can become a scalable business.
— Heli Tolvanen, Product Sustainability Manager, Abloy Oy