Toward a More Sustainable Way of Business
Business and industrialism developed in a different world from the one we live in today: fewer people, less material well-being, plentiful natural resources. What emerged was a highly productive, take-make-and-waste system that assumed infinite resources with little to no thought given to its impact. Today, that system no longer enhances our prosperity; instead, it is endangering it. When Interface saw itself as part of this system and the collective problem, we began a journey in a different direction, toward sustainability.
The Interface journey toward sustainability has been a momentous shift in the way we operate our business and see the world. Move through these pages for a closer look – you will find a journey that is marked by innovation, as we completely reimagined and redesigned everything we do, including the most basic ways in which we define our business. You will meet the
partners who accompany and advise us on our journey and learn how we carefully measure our progress. We believe the Interface journey can be a model for business in the next industrial revolution.
Our journey has been incredibly good for the business of Interface. As our founder and Chairman, and the leader of the Interface journey toward sustainability, Ray Anderson, has said:
“Costs are down, not up, dispelling a myth and exposing the false choice between the economy and the environment, products are the best they have ever been, because sustainable design has provided an unexpected wellspring of innovation, people are galvanized around a shared higher purpose, better people are applying, the best people are staying and working with a purpose, the goodwill in the marketplace generated by our focus on sustainability far exceeds that which any amount of advertising or marketing expenditure could have generated – this company believes it has found a better way to a bigger and more legitimate profit – a better business model.”
We continue to be guided on our journey by Mission Zero™: our promise to completely eliminate the negative impact our company may have on the environment by 2020. This site is designed to share valuable educational resources and information with members of the communities we serve, which we hope will inspire you to create your own Mission Zero journey to sustainability.