Climate Change Means Business

A new report on the future of Sustainable Businesses launched today claims that businesses need to wake up to the ‘climate factor’ as it begins to impact more forcefully on the political and economical landscape.

Climate change will become increasingly prominent on the corporate agenda as companies try to manage the risks associated with reputation as well as regulation and changing weather patterns. This is one of the findings of Sustainable Futures, a new report from global flooring company InterfaceFLOR, with contribution from The Climate Group.

Sophy Bristow, Project Manager at The Climate Group, who wrote the report’s chapter on ‘The Future of Sustainable Design and Innovation’ comments: “Climate changes will have direct impacts on companies in the very imminent future, for example on infrastructure, investments and the flexibility of sourcing a supply chain. It is also reasonable to suppose that in the context of increasingly climate change, legislation will become more far reaching and extensive as electorates wake up to the problem and governments react to the consequences of changing weather and the costs of adaptive action.”

Sophy believes that rising consumer awareness can also clearly be seen as an important business opportunity as research shows that consumers are increasingly demanding products, services and brands that would allow them to reflect their climate-change concern in their spending. She continues: “Recent research carried out by The Climate Group found that 28% of consumers in the UK and 19% in the US are ‘very strongly concerned’ about climate change, supporting a potentially much larger market than for organics or Fair-Trade when those markets first took off.”

Lindsey Parnell, President and CEO of the European division of InterfaceFLOR agrees with Sophy and adds that companies who rush to make sustainable claims which they cannot substantiate and will not stand the scrutiny of third party audit will damage their businesses and fail to achieve the business growth of proper sustainable investment. “In the wake of the Stern Report, businesses have two choices: be driven by legislation, or make positive changes to their business to foster growth. Businesses who decide on the latter course have to invest in making it happen but it has taken Interface 12 years to get to a point where we can see the benefit of sustainable investment in business growth and employee fulfilment. We want all businesses – and that includes our competitors – to succeed in their quest for sustainability, but greenwash won’t wash.”

Interface, which has recently been named number one in GlobeScan’s independent review of the leading companies fulfilling their responsibilities to society worldwide*, has, through its mission zero promise over the past 12 years, committed to reduce its environmental footprint, and is aiming for zero environmental impact by 2020. The company’s cost savings and marketing activities brought about by sustainable initiatives total $300 million of costs avoided since 1996.

As part of its commitment to help reduce the impact of climate change, InterfaceFLOR in Europe provides three sustainable services to its customers: Cool Carpet®, ReEntry® and Evergreen Lease™, as well as implementing sustainable manufacturing policies throughout the organisation. Energy efficiency and renewable energy programmes have resulted in a 56% global reduction in CO2 emissions since 1996. Improvements in production processes have allowed an 81% reduction in water intake per m2 of production facilities, petroleum based materials have been reduced by 29% and all the European factories work on 100% renewable electricity. However, although great progress has been made to date, Interface recognises it still has a considerable way to go on the journey to becoming a completely sustainable business.”

The Cool Carpet® programme gives customers the option to pay an extra 12p/m² on the purchase price of the carpet tile The cost is for all products other than InterfaceFLOR’s Random design range, where the figure is included in the overall purchasing cost., to offset the greenhouse gas emissions generated during the entire lifecycle of a purchased carpet. The money raised is then used to fund the development of forestation plants, energy saving projects and renewable energy schemes in South Africa and India in partnership with Climate Care. ReEntry® is concerned with reducing the amount of used product which is sent to landfill. Under the ReEntry® scheme, InterfaceFLOR carpet tiles are collected and diverted from landfill via re-use, recycling or energy recovery. Through the Evergreen Lease™ system InterfaceFLOR does not sell product but leases it. This allows the product life-cycle to be extended and also facilitates the recovery of carpet so that it can be re-purposed, thereby diverting it from landfill.

Lindsey comments: “At InterfaceFLOR, we fully accept that climate change is happening and our response to that is to tackle our own carbon footprint whilst continuing to develop and produce products which wherever possible require less energy, are collected and diverted from landfill and are manufactured using renewable energy sources.”

InterfaceFLOR’s report, Sustainable Futures, includes contributions from the UK’s top thought leaders on trends across six key areas of business: Leadership (Forum for the Future); Marketing (University of Strathclyde Business School); Communications (Futerra); Business Environment (The Climate Group); Employee Engagement (The Work Foundation) and Design and Innovation (The Design Council). All contributions clearly demonstrate a correlation between investment in sustainable business practices and successful businesses.

InterfaceFLOR also lists 36 actions businesses can take now to reduce their environmental footprint. However, Parnell warns that many of these will require investment in time and money to deliver. These include initiatives to win the hearts and minds of customers, revolutionise manufacturing processes, design and innovation, supplier relationships, recruitment and retention, and total business vision.

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Date issued: 23 January 2007

Note to Editors

A copy of Sustainable Futures, including the full list of 36 actions businesses can take and InterfaceFLOR case studies, is available on request.

*A copy of GlobeScan’s Report is available from www.globescan.com

Interface Carpet /Interface Inc.

Interface is a recognized leader in the commercial interiors market, offering floor coverings and fabrics. The company is committed to the goal of sustainability and doing business in ways that minimize the impact on the environment while enhancing shareholder value.

Interface was founded in 1973 by Chairman, Ray Anderson, considered to be a pioneer from the start - a trailblazer of the modular carpet industry in the United States. The company promotes sustainable business practices - within its global community and in the products it makes. For Interface, sustainability is a belief that is built into the business model, an underlying corporate value, ensuring that business decisions are weighed against their potential impact on economic, natural and social systems. It's a means for associates to deliver superior value to customers and shareholders.

Interface is a global company with manufacturing locations on four continents and offices in more than 100 countries.