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Supply Chain & Transportation

Supply Chain

Together we’re stronger. At Interface, we realize no company stands alone and that we are part of a web of companies working together to make our products – our supply chain. When we started our sustainability journey, we quickly learned that the substantial majority of our product’s footprint was incurred before our raw materials reached our receiving docks! It became very clear to us that for Interface to be completely sustainable, we would not reach that goal without first, educating and actively engaging all of our suppliers accompanying us on our Mission Zero journey.

We began with early supplier conversations at Supplier Summits. These discussions have accomplished the critical first step of changing minds. Since then, we have closely collaborated with our core strategic suppliers to address their own environmental impacts and, specifically, the impacts of the products they supply Interface. By educating the suppliers about our mission, they have been better positioned to educate us about the alternate materials and technologies that are available to further our progress. In turn, we can better address our impact with new and innovative alternatives.

The alternatives range from simple solutions that can improve our overall footprint and their climate impact to new and innovative technologies that help us increase the recycled content of our products.

Our global core suppliers continue to partner with us and develop new solutions by which we can improve the overall supply chain performance and impact. Strategic suppliers have implemented new tools by which we can make better decisions, minimize supply chain uncertainties and improve overall supply chain performance. Our key suppliers continue to partner with us to provide “door step” solutions to all of our plants around the world.

Transportation

Interface is working on several initiatives to map and reduce its transportation footprint globally. There are smaller factors considered, such as the types of cars our associates drive, but we also take into account the ways in which we ship products around the world. Our focus on reducing our transportation footprint has also led us to create and partner in innovative programs that address a full range of transportation-related issues – from associate commutes to business travel and more:

• In 2003, Interface became a charter member of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s SmartWay Transport Partnership™, a program where member companies assess their GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions from transportation and develop reduction goals. Interface partnered with a third party logistics firm to build on the SmartWay model for a more comprehensive look at our transportation footprint, earning an Environmental Excellence Award from the SmartWay Transport Partnership in 2006.
   
• Interface and Subaru of America joined forces to create carbon neutral driving for Interface associates driving company cars. Subaru offsets the carbon footprint from the operation of company cars for the first 60,000 miles by purchasing and retiring carbon offsets through Native Energy.
   
• Interface partners with associates around the world through the Cool CO₂mmute™ program. Under Cool CO₂mmute, associates calculate and offset their own carbon emissions from commuting. Interface pays half the cost of the offset purchases, making the net average cost to associates $12 each year to be "cool" drivers.
   
• Interface’s Cool Fuel™ program calculates and offsets the carbon emissions from company cars. Since its inception in 2002, the program has offset more than 11,500 tonnes of CO₂, the equivalent of avoiding emissions from one million gallons of gasoline.
   
• Interface’s Trees For Travel™ program balances the carbon emissions associated with business air travel. Our travel agency records the miles and totals the mileage of all trips at the end of each year, and we then calculate the carbon emissions from those flights and balance them by planting trees. We partner with American Forests and Trees Canada, who plant three trees for every one we need, just to be safe. Since 1997, Interface has planted more than 87,000 trees as part of this program.