Environmental and Social Issues

We have been using a series of initiatives for over a decade to reduce our negative impact on the Earth in terms of environmental and social issues.

Environmental Projects

Our achievements to date reflect our commitment to the environment in our manufacturing operations, but we recognise our environmental responsibility in everything that we do. Here are just some of the projects we are involved in:

‘Trees for Travel’ Where possible we try to avoid unnecessary journeys, but for unavoidable air travel we are involved in a project which ‘offsets’ the carbon dioxide emissions caused by travel. Trees absorb CO2 as they grow, and therefore by planting trees we are taking a positive step to counter global warming. Whenever an employee takes a flight for business, we calculate the carbon generated by the aircraft and plant trees to reclaim the carbon – not just for our employee, but all passengers on the flight!

Company Car Scheme

We moved our company car scheme away from being solely based on value. It is now based on the entire life cycle of the vehicle with special attention to emission levels. This resulted in a 7% reduction in carbon emissions in the first year we launched the scheme!

Delivery vehicles

Our carpet tiles are delivered by road and we are continually working to minimise the impact of our delivery vehicles.

Waste – reduce, reuse, recycle

We are committed to the elimination of all waste. Where we cannot completely eliminate waste we have schemes for the reuse or recycling of materials.

Spreading the Word Our founder and CEO Ray Anderson initiated our mission towards becoming a fully sustainable company 11 years ago and he is personally committed to sharing his vision with the world. Having undertaken an average of 80 speeches a year in the last 11 years, Ray has promoted his revolutionary vision through sharing knowledge and best practice. In his book Mid Course to Correction: Towards a Sustainable Enterprise – The Interface Model, Ray recalls his awakening and his resulting commitment to develop a business that puts back more than it takes and to do good to the Earth, not just no harm.

Company Resources

Where possible, we try to maximise the use of electronic resources to reduce the need for printed materials. Where we need to produce printed materials, we are selective in our purchase decisions to ensure that any materials that we do produce are printed on recycled materials.

Our vision is central to everything we do. All our employees are joined in working towards Mission Zero and by working together we are confident that we can achieve our goal!

Social Responsibility

Part of our sustainability vision is our commitment to society and we recognise that as a company it is our duty to put something back into local communities around the world.

Employees are encouraged to get involved in charitable projects and the company offers support to a wide range of charitable organisations.

On a Global Level

As a company, we raised $78,000 towards the Tsunami fund following the devastating events of 2005. Donations were split between the following four organisations: International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Save the Children, UNICEF and Habitat for Humanity. In addition to the monetary donations, our business division in Thailand developed a programme for donating second quality carpet tiles to charitable organisations involved in the rebuilding programme following the disaster.

On a Community Level

In 2005, Interface supported a volunteer programme in Ghana, West Africa providing kit and equipment for a school sports coaching scheme. The volunteers involved also worked on an AIDS education programme alongside the sports coaching, in schools in the Accra area.

Please contact us if you would like to find out more.