InterfaceFLOR Australia : A Carbon Neutral Example

I’ve talked about ways we, as individuals, might reduce carbon emissions and the impact we might make with carbon offsets and reducing our personal carbon footprint. It’s a much more daunting task for a big company to make a significant reduction in its carbon emissions, but for InterfaceFLOR Australia, the progress in the goal of achieving a carbon neutral position is almost within reach.

InterfaceFLOR Australia is a modular carpet manufacturer and is the Australian subsidiary of United States company Interface. The company has managed to eliminate all carbon emissions completely from the production of its carpet tiles. Carbon offsets are being used by the company for unavoidable carbon emissions that are not able to be eliminated by operational or technical changes.

It’s all part of an ambitious program embarked upon by the parent company called “Mission Zero” which seeks to eliminate all harmful effects to the environment caused by its commercial activities by 2020. This will include the elimination of greenhouse gas emissions, waste, a reduction in the consumption of non-renewable energy and eliminating the use of toxic substances.

Chief executive Rob Coombs has pointed out that the company has demonstrated that it is possible to practice environmental sustainability and still run a business profitably. Popular belief is that the two concepts are mutually exclusive. But over the last 5 years InterfaceFLOR Australia reduced carbon emissions by 25% and has averaged profit growth of 25% for the last 3 of those years.

InterfaceFLOR has benefited from its reduced energy usage, water consumption and waste:

• By streamlining its operations.
  
• By improving innovation and product design by forcing people to think creatively outside the box.
  
• By attracting new customers, drawn by the environment friendly philosophy and products.
  
• By attracting new production partners.
  
• By attracting and retaining quality employees.

The measurement of InterfaceFLOR's impact on the environment does not stop at the factory door, it also covers the complete lifecycle of its products from raw materials to supply chain store activity right through to it’s removal and disposal.

The Spread of Carbon Emission Consciousness

What this amounts to is encouraging suppliers and distributors to reduce their carbon emissions and paying to purchase the carbon offsets associated with any remaining emissions. All tenders for new contracts with InterfaceFLOR has sustainability as a key component of the evaluation process, a great way to spread the concept that it is beneficial on more than just the environmental level to reduce carbon emissions.

For example, when Border Express bid for the InterfaceFLOR freight contract, the sustainability clause acted as a catalyst for the company to review its own ecological footprint. The company engaged an environmental consultant to conduct an audit on the effect it was having on the environment and will implement changes to make it a more sustainable business. Changes to fuel and engine efficiency, the age of the fleet and driver training will be key areas where changes can be made.

Since 1994, InterfaceFLOR Australia has:

• Saved more than $25 million through waste elimination activities.
  
• Reduced waste cost per unit of production by more than 90%.
  
• Reduced manufacturing emissions in water to zero.
  
• Reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 12%.
  
• Reduced total energy consumption in Australia by 36% per unit of production.
  
• Installed skylights in facilities to save on lighting energy consumption.
  
• Been the first carpet manufacturer to use fibres made from polylactic acid, a commercially viable plastic made from corn starch.
  
• Introduced a Cool Fuel™ Program which aims to "zero out" the carbon dioxide caused by the company's car travel with carbon offset packages for employees - more than 3,500 metric tons of carbon dioxide have been offset since its inception in 2002.
  
• Diverted nearly 30 million kilograms of carpet from landfills globally through recycling.
  
• Introduced Cool Carpet™ the first "climate neutral" carpet option. "Climate neutral" means that the greenhouse gases emitted during the carpet's lifecycle are balanced by InterfaceFLOR's investments in carbon emissions offsets.

If a global company such as Interface can make this kind of commitment to reducing carbon emissions and greenhouse gases, perhaps a few more businesses can take up the challenge. It's an inspirational story and one that could be repeated throughout the business community.