Cool Carpet® – Carbon neutral carpet tiles

Over the past 15 years, InterfaceFLOR has pioneered numerous sustainable design and manufacturing improvements, but few are as revolutionary as Cool Carpet®.

Cool Carpet® is a service that offsets all greenhouse gas emissions associated with the entire life cycle of a product. It is included as standard on some of our most sustainable products, as well as being available on any others on request.

What do we mean by carbon neutral?
‘Carbon neutral’ is a term that’s been so widely used, and in so many contexts, that its meaning has become slightly obscured. Here’s what it means to us and what we do to make your Cool Carpet® purchase carbon neutral:

We carry out life cycle assessments (LCA) to measure the carbon footprint of each of our products. The total amount of greenhouse gases emitted throughout the life of the tile is calculated, in CO2 equivalents, to purchase verified carbon offsets that neutralise these emissions.

Considering the full life cycle of our products
We take into account the emissions at all stages of the life cycle of a product. This includes the process of gathering raw materials, manufacturing, transportation, use and maintenance, and final disposal or recycling.

Only around 10% of the total impact comes from the production at our factories, with the biggest impact (around 70%) relating to the gathering of raw materials.

For this reason we don’t make corporate neutrality claims based on the 10% direct carbon footprint relating to our activities, as we think this would be misleading.

The projects we support and the principles followed

• Biomass power in India
• Cooking stoves in Cambodia
• Treadle pumps in India
• Constructing a wind turbine in India

Each project is certified according to the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) and validated and verified by independent third parties to monitor and confirm the emissions reductions made.

Strict procedures and principles are also followed to ensure ‘additionality’ – meaning we never fund projects where the greenhouse gas reductions would have happened anyway – and to avoid double-counting of reductions under the Kyoto protocol.

And in addition to reducing emissions we look to support projects which offer additional health and sustainable development benefits to local communities. Learn more about these projects and the principles followed.

Reduction is our first priority
We see offsets as the last resort in our climate change strategy. Our main focus is on reducing our total energy use by improving the efficiency of our operations. We aim to use 100% renewable energy by 2020 and by purchasing renewable electricity from the grid and investing in on-site renewable energy generation, we’re on course to meet this target.

Progress is always ongoing and our sites around the world have introduced many initiatives – some small, some large – to reduce energy use, cut emissions, and change the way we do business. Read more about our achievements to date.

Contributing to green building schemes
In addition to helping the fight against climate change, Cool Carpet® can earn you credits with green building scheme, such as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).

Which products include Cool Carpet®?
To encourage you to make the greenest choice Cool Carpet® is available as standard on some of our most sustainable products, including our FlatWorks range and our random designs. So, if you choose any of the following products we’ll automatically make your purchase ‘cool’: Elevation, Entropy, Fastforward, Graduate, Intaglio, Oblique, Palette Pavement, Palette Stripe, Paradox, Renew, Restore, Sabi, Shadowland, Straightforward, The Scandinavian Collection, Transformation, Wabi Stripe and Wabi Weave.

If you prefer any of our other designs for your project, we’ll make your choice carbon neutral on request. Please contact us to find out more

Constructing a wind turbine in India

Biomass power in India

Cooking stoves in Cambodia