About
When Ray Anderson founded Interface Inc. in Georgia, USA, in 1973, he could not have known that the company would become the internationally recognized leader in sustainable business that it is today. With over a billion dollars in annual sales, Interface has proven that integrating sustainability into every company decision makes real business sense. Interface began addressing sustainability in 1994 and
often describes the process as a journey up a large mountain, Mount Sustainability. Interface’s commitment to achieving sustainability is captured in its Mission Zero™ promise to eliminate any negative impact its companies may have on the environment by 2020. To date, Interface has successfully reduced its net absolute GHG emissions by 60% while taking the top spot as the largest manufacturer of modular carpet in the world.
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Strategy
Interface is committed to becoming a climate neutral enterprise. The company’s climate strategy employs a multi-faceted systems based approach to develop holistic solutions.
In 2007, Interface reinforced its internal commitment to being a carbon neutral company by joining the Clinton Global Initiative, where, as an official member, it made a public commitment to be a climate neutral company by 2020. In the presence of global leaders from business, politics, academia and non governmental organizations, Interface pledged that it would achieve its climate neutral goal through the implementation of emissions reduction strategies in areas that include, but are not limited to: manufacturing facilities, offices, showrooms, transport and all operations affecting people and product.
At its facilities, Interface has used new technologies, process improvements and energy efficiency projects to successfully reduce its emissions. Outside its facilities, Interface has engaged its suppliers around cost-effective emissions reduction strategies. For its people, Interface has organized and supported employee engagement initiatives, such as Cool Co2mmute™ and Cool Fuel™, to enable staff to reduce their own carbon footprints. To complement its emissions reduction efforts, Interface uses renewable energy to further reduce its impact on the climate.
Supply Chain Engagement
Working with companies in its supply chain is an important piece of Interface’s climate strategy because 71% of its products’ carbon footprint comes from the raw materials entering Interface’s factories. Today, Interface measures the upstream and downstream GHG emissions of its products using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). These LCA results can be used to educate suppliers about the GHG emissions associated with their material or process and help Interface determine where to target reduction opportunities.
Process Efficiencies and Energy Reduction Projects
Another strategy Interface has used to address its climate reductions are projects to reduce energy used in its manufacturing processes and facilities, thus reducing emissions. At its plant in Scherpenzeel, NL, Interface installed an energy monitoring system that tracks and displays building energy usage 24 hours a day. The system’s presence and the data it generates have greatly increased employee awareness of opportunities for conservation and cost savings. At another plant in Troup County,
Georgia, Interface retrofitted its factory space with more efficient lighting systems, and installed skylights to reduce the need for electric lighting. Both actions reduced energy usage at this facility. At another facility in Elkin, North Carolina, the company designed and retrofitted the building with a customized, highly efficient HVAC system resulting in remarkable efficiency gains compared to the alternative of a conventional HVAC system. The customized system utilizes more efficient motors,
larger building fans and building insulation improvements to deliver reduced energy usage of 307,000 kwh per month, equivalent to the combustion of 45 tons of coal per month by the local utility.
Employee Engagement
Interface designs and implements employee engagement initiatives as another strategy to reduce the company’s overall climate impacts while simultaneously educating and empowering employees to reduce their own emissions.
Cool Co2mmute™ This is a program that allows Interface employees to balance the emissions from their daily commutes. This voluntary program measures and neutralizes the impact of employee
commuting through purchase and the retirement of credible carbon offsets.
Cool Fuel™ This program neutralizes the carbon emissions from company vehicles by first tracking fuel use, then purchasing and retiring credible carbon offsets. Interface has purchased and retired 11,213 tonnes of CO2 as of the end of 2007.
Trees For Travel ™ This program makes all company travel climate neutral by first tracking company air miles and then planting enough trees to balance the resulting GHG emissions. Through this program, Interface has offset the equivalent of 174 million air miles of company travel and planted 87,206 trees.
Renewable Energy
Interface has implemented several pilot projects at manufacturing plants using a range of renewable technologies including solar and biomass. Interface also purchases green energy from its utilities at multiple manufacturing plants. Interface currently runs seven of its facilities on 100% renewable electricity. One particularly remarkable demonstration of Interface’s commitment to finding creative solutions for reducing emissions took place in LaGrange, Georgia, USA in 2003. The company partnered with a local utility to develop a landfill gas project. Interface uses this landfill gas in its manufacturing process, displacing the old alternative, natural gas, and avoiding the climate emissions of this fossil fuel.
Stakeholder Engagement
Interface believes a key part of its climate strategy is to engage with and learn from a broad group of stakeholders, and to use its experiences to similarly influence others. By partnering with Non-Governmental organizations (NGOs), thought leaders and like-minded companies, Interface is inspired to develop new solutions and can have a collective impact with these partners. The company relies on organizations like the World Resources Institute, The Climate Group and many others to learn, share ideas and become inspired to address our climate challenges in unique and innovative ways. Through these relationships, Interface has not only learned a great deal, but has also mentored others by drawing on its own experiences. Interface's capacity to share its experiences has increased significantly with the launch of InterfaceRAISE™, a consultancy dedicated to helping others address sustainability in their own organizations.
Climate Neutral Products
Committing to the creation of climate neutral products is another piece of Interface’s strategy to reduce its climate impacts. In 2003, Interface launched the industry’s first climate neutral product, Cool Carpet™. Climate neutral Cool Carpet zeros out all GHG emissions associated with the entire lifecycle of the product by measuring the climate impacts at every stage of the product, then reducing and offsetting the rest. Now, Interface has made this an industry standard as part of all InterfaceFLOR products sold in North America. Interface’s climate neutral products are third-party certified by environmental experts who review Interface’s data to ensure credibility. Through this climate neutral product program, Interface has purchased and retired813,272metric tonnes of CO2.
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