The challenge
Existing businesses are founded on a fundamentally unsustainable culture of consumerism, whereby needs which could be satisfied with a service are frequently satisfied by materials and products.
To achieve Mission Zero and become the first truly sustainable corporation, we must come up with technological innovations to reduce the impacts of our operations. But we must also change the way we run our business.

Our approach
We are redesigning commerce by changing our purchasing practices, our manufacturing processes and our ideology. We are creating new business models that focus on delivering services and adding value for our customers, rather than just material products.

When we design our products, we consider the environmental impacts at every stage of their life. Our responsibility for our products does not end when we have sold them to a customer, it continues through their lifecycle. Making high quality carpets which last longer reduces the resources our industry uses. Adequately maintaining a carpet prolongs its life.

We have come up with a range of services which deliver value for the customer by combining products and services over time. Offering customers maintenance and take-back services helps us stay involved and retain some control over the impacts of our products in use and end-of-life.
Changing the way customers think about their carpets is an important part of achieving this goal (see sensitising stakeholders). This provides opportunities to reduce the environmental footprint of commercial buildings (see sustainability of our products).

European progress
• Pioneering concepts such as Random Design, Microtufted and TacTiles are redesigning commerce to be more sustainable
• FairWorks launched in 2008, integrating social and environment benefits
• More than eight million m2 Microtufted products sold since their launch in 2001
• More than nine million m2 of Random Design products sold since 2001

Putting our approach into practice
We have developed a range of products and services that reduce the impacts of our carpets through their lifecycle by offering customers more flexible options to extend the life of their carpets or reduce installation waste.

Interface pioneered the concept of modular carpet, which can be installed and uninstalled quickly and easily. This dramatically reduces waste and installation time. It enables carpet to be easily maintained by replacing individual worn tiles instead of the whole floor. Modular carpet tiles can be easily recycled and reused elsewhere. We are now expanding the idea to hard flooring.

Our products and services include:
• Glue-less installation with TacTiles
• Random Design products that dramatically reduce installation waste
• Cool Carpet to balance emissions during the entire life cycle of a carpet through carbon offsets
• FairWorks, which combines sustainable materials and traditional skills to produce beautiful and unique flooring in a socially responsible way
• Intercell®, slightly raised above floor level to easily conceal and manage cables below office flooring.

Read more about the sustainability of our products and services.