Interface aims to go beyond net zero with Climate Take Back
We Mean Business coalition
Interface, the world’s largest manufacturer of modular carpet, is on track to achieve its bold aim of reaching carbon neutrality by 2020. But the company isn’t stopping there. It’s making a further ambitious push for climate action and encouraging other businesses to follow suit in the process.
Interface’s new initiative Climate Take Back aims to raise the collective ambition on climate change by driving a fundamental shift in mindset: from merely limiting the damage caused by climate change, to creating a climate fit for life.
There are four elements to the Climate Take Back plan, which can be adapted by any business or organization to remove carbon from the atmosphere through their own product portfolios, R&D pipelines, or through raw materials in their supply chains.
Live Zero: Aim for zero negative impact on the environment
Love Carbon: Stop seeing carbon as the enemy, and start using it as a resource
Let Nature Cool: Support our biosphere’s ability to regulate the climate
Lead the Industrial Re-revolution: Transform industry into a force for the future we want
“It’s a big idea, but we have four simple steps to get there,” Erin Meezan, Chief Sustainability Officer, Interface said.
“The first is focused on really making sure we don’t put more carbon into the atmosphere; we call that Live Zero. The second is about using the carbon that is in the atmosphere as a building block to make products, to make raw materials; we call that Love Carbon.”
“The third is Let Nature Cool and that means we want to run our business in a way that doesn’t interfere with nature’s ability to cool itself. And the last is about leading the Industrial Re-Revolution. It means taking all the ideas and the learnings and the innovations and finding a way to share those so that we can change how business is done,” she said.
One of the key ways Interface hopes to address climate change is through embedding carbon in the products themselves.
“The idea here is to prove to ourselves and to others that a product can be beneficial rather than harmful for the environment. It caused us to start to look and find materials that can remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it over time. We have developed a prototype that is proof positive that it can be done and that it can make a flooring system that performs,” John Bradford, Chief Science and Technology Officer, said.
Interface has taken plant-derived carbon and converted it into a durable material, that prevents the release of that carbon back into the atmosphere, and have stored it into a concept tile called the Proof Positive tile.
“Carpet tiles that store carbon are perfect for building positive environments that can actually remove carbon from the atmosphere. We hope that this will surprise and delight our customers while challenging our competitors to start experimenting with how they too can make products that remove carbon from the atmosphere,” Meezan explained.
- Find out more about Interface’s Climate Take Back initiative >
- Find out how your company can Take Action with the We Mean Business coalition >