[Atlanta] Interface, Inc. today announced it is focusing on direct carbon reduction and carbon storage to meet the urgency of the climate crisis. The company is aligning its strategy to meet its climate commitments, which do not allow for carbon offsets.
According to the company, the planet is at an inflection point and absolute emission reductions are critical to solving the climate crisis. Beginning in 2025, Interface will repurpose former offset investments to accelerate innovation projects that will result in direct carbon reductions and carbon storage both internally and throughout its supply chain.
“We’re ‘all in’ on solving the climate crisis. We’ve made incredible progress in our 30-year sustainability journey, and we’re committed to achieving our ambitious environmental sustainability goals without carbon offsets,” said Laurel Hurd, CEO of Interface. “Carbon negative carpet tile changed everything for Interface. We now know it’s possible to store more carbon than we emit – and we believe we can accomplish this across our product portfolio, from carpet tile to resilient flooring. We want to challenge ourselves and others to become carbon negative, enterprise wide, without offsets. We hope to continue to inspire industry to join us to make an even bigger impact through our collective action focused on absolute carbon reduction.”
Interface’s Carbon Footprint Reduction Plan
Interface offers the lowest carbon footprint carpet tile products in the industry, based on publicly available emissions data in Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). The company has made progress through three decades in global carpet tile manufacturing, raw material sourcing, collaboration with suppliers and a focus on the full lifecycle of its products including restoration to keep products in place, as well as programs for reuse and recycling across the globe.
Interface is applying these approaches to its resilient flooring to accelerate improvements across its entire product portfolio.
Examples of current and future initiatives that may benefit from additional investment include:
• Reimagining product development and manufacturing to drive carbon reduction and storage
• Reducing the carbon footprint of resilient products through manufacturing and raw material innovations and increasing recycled content
• Increasing the use of biobased materials across all product categories
• Exploring opportunities and partnerships in our supply chain to address Scope 3 emissions in the future
• Identifying and driving commercial adoption of circular models across all product categories
“Our carbon plan is simple: Avoid. Reduce. Store. Inspire,” said Liz Minné, head of global sustainability strategy at Interface. “We’re doubling down to store more carbon than we emit across our entire enterprise. We’re avoiding and reducing emissions throughout our product manufacturing, our business operations, and our supply chain, and working to store more carbon in our products. We’ve been charting this course for 30 years, and we won’t stop until we achieve carbon negativity, without offsets, by 2040. And we hope we inspire others to do the same.”
Interface’s Climate Goals
Interface will focus its efforts on direct carbon reduction and carbon storage innovation projects to meet its ambitious environmental sustainability goals, which include:
• By 2030, to achieve targets validated by the Science Based Targets Initiative(SBTi) to halve its absolute Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions, to halve absolute Scope 3 emissions from purchased goods and services, and to reduce business travel and employee commuting emissions by 30%, all from a 2019 baseline year.
• By 2040, to become a carbon negative enterprise, without offsets.
Carbon Offset Program Updates
As of April 30, 2024, Interface will discontinue its Carbon Neutral Floors™ and Carbon Neutral Enterprise programs to increase project budgets as the company continues to identify opportunities for decarbonization in a rapidly evolving market for climate solutions. Interface will offer verified carbon credits for all customer purchases through the end of 2024.
Interface’s calculations and carbon footprint data are third-party verified, including full life cycle impacts of its products and Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions of its business, without offsets. These verified impacts are reported in EPDs, product specifications, and annual EcoMetrics and Impact Reports.
For more information on Interface’s sustainability journey and the company’s climate ambitions, go to: http://www.interface.com/allin.