Climbing Mount Sustainability: Mission Zero at InterfaceFLOR

InterfaceFLOR manufactures and sells carpet tiles. One might guess that a carpet business is not exactly the easiest possible point of departure for going on the journey to becoming a truly sustainable business. Plastics used in carpet production are usually petroleum based, and the glue often toxic.

The production process involves heat, is energy intensive, and creates a high amount of CO2. Nevertheless, in 1994, InterfaceFLOR declared its Mission Zero, the goal of becoming a truly sustainable business, one that has no negative social, environmental, or economic impact by the year 2020. A sustainable business is one that contributes to sustainable development. The final goal of the company is to become not only a business that does no harm, but also one that has a net positive impact, that is, a restorative business. InterfaceFLORs late founder Ray Anderson called the mission climbing mount sustainabilitydifficult, but not impossible.

Lets start from the beginning. InterfaceFLOR began to producecarpet tiles in 1973, and in 1994, the company declared that it would follow a Less Is More philosophy. The company showed tangible actions from the beginning, reducing average consumption of fiber by 10 percent in just twelve months. In this initial stage, the company implemented the innovative ReEntry program to recover used carpet tiles from customers and recycle them into new products. Until today, InterfaceFLOR has shown leadership through innovative measures to become a responsible business. Through the Cool Carpet program, customers participate in a carbon-offsetting scheme, through which a part of the price paid for carpet is invested into activities such as renewable-energy programs and carbon-neutral initiatives. In production, the company uses smart conveyor belts, the Intelliveyor, which always stop when there is no product to be moved, something that saves considerable amounts of energy. However impressive those programs sound, the most important tool that is applied while climbing mount sustainability is the product life-cycle assessment (LCA).

All products of InterfaceFLOR are accompanied by a report stating the complete environmental impact made by the product throughout the three life-cycle stages: production, use, and consumption. The report from InterfaceFLOR, called the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), reveals detailed information on the environmental impacts made through the product in clear categories such as global warming, ozone, and abiotic depletion (depletion of nonrenewable resources). The assessment includes other details such as the products water footprint and the degree of impact in the specific life-cycle stage. Such an assessment informs customers and allows the company to track and improve progress.

The results are impressive. The company has reduced waste by 78 percent since 1994, reduced energy usage by 44 percent, diverted 100,000 tons of raw materials from land-fills, and saved $433 million in waste costs. Those are sound positive environmental and economic indicators, but one uncertainty may keep the company from climbing mount sustainability. There is no information on the social impact of the business. To be a truly sustainable business, the complete triple bottom line of environmental, economic and social impacts needs to be a neutral or even positive one.

Q#1. Identify the triple bottom line for InterfaceFLOR?

Q#2. How has InterfaceFLOR leadership shown innovative measures to become a responsible business?

Q#3 As a student of CLSR, identify how InterfaceFLOR can use the product life-cycle assessment (LCA) to ensure sustainability.