By Steve Arbaugh Vice President, Brand Marketing, Alignment & Experience, Interface Americas
As you browse the showrooms at Greenbuild this year, identifying manufacturing leaders with deep-rooted sustainability commitments requires looking beyond specs and asking thoughtful questions. To help determine which manufacturers are walking the walk, we’ve created a list of eight questions to ask.

The bigger picture of sustainability is achieved through company actions. No matter the product there are common elements that define leadership in sustainability.

Question assumptions: Leaders invest in research to understand which environmental impacts occur and where and when they happen. They do their homework, using tools like Life Cycle Assessment, and work hard to practice responsible product stewardship. This often means looking beyond their own four walls and seeking ways to reinvent their supply chain, as well as how they manage the end of the product’s life. Ask these questions:

1. How has your company influenced your supply chain to help achieve greater sustainability?

2. How has life cycle assessment changed your company or product strategy?

3. Which criteria does your company use to evaluate new materials, technologies or processes?

Celebrate radical transparency: The time has come for stakeholders to know the real story of their stuff. Clients need access to more than just the product specs for green products. They need robust information describing the full environmental impacts of products for the full life cycle. Leaders need to practice transparency and collaborate with third parties to audit these disclosures and ensure accurate reporting. Ask these questions:

4. How does your company report the potential environmental impacts associated with your products’ life cycle, i.e. raw material extraction and processing, manufacturing, use, transportation and end of life?

5. Which ISO protocol(s) does your company follow for reporting the potential environmental impacts associated with the full life cycle of your products?

6. Which third-party organization audits your company’s environmental claims?

Focus on what really matters: Leaders push the envelope for real change and actively create a new future. Rather than accepting the status quo of “take-make-waste,” these game changers aspire to reinvent the way we do business. Rallying behind goals like “Inspire Conscious Consumption” or “Off Oil,” leaders engage their employees, their suppliers and their customers to create authentic progress toward a sustainable future.

7. What does success look like in terms of sustainability? How is success measured? How do your employees participate?

8. What is the most audacious goal your company is striving toward in sustainability?

Carry this list of questions at Greenbuild to find out who among the thousands of exhibitors are willing to engage in inspired discussion regarding our shared future. You may encounter a wide range of responses, from fumbling and mumbling to robust dialogue. Either way, you’ll be sure to leave with more than just the standard green pitch.