Company Chairman and Founder Ray Anderson coined the term EcoMetrics when Interface embarked on its sustainability journey in 1994. Since then, the company has assessed its manufacturing facilities annually, measuring how much material and energy it consumes, and what comes out in the form of products and waste. The organization is simultaneously taking three paths on this journey—defined by reductions in its environmental footprint, dedication to product innovation and commitment to culture.

Footprint Reduction
EcoMetrics indicators include physical waste, energy usage, greenhouse gas emissions, and water consumption. Each Interface plant tracks and reports on hundreds of metrics quarterly. Results are rolled up on a company-wide level and reported annually to track progress. Key 2010 data includes the following:

1. Total energy used at manufacturing facilities -- per unit of product -- is down 43 percent since 1996. Interface is striving to improve energy efficiency, utilizing energy metering and process analysis, to reduce energy usage and decrease energy costs. Using less energy to fulfill the same business functions helps reduce the company’s impact.

2. Thirty percent of Interface’s total energy use comes from renewable sources. Interface is striving to maximize its use of renewable energy, including the electricity generated by three on-site photovoltaic arrays and locally sourced landfill gas. In 2010, eight of nine manufacturing facilities used 100 percent green electricity.

3. Actual greenhouse gas emissions at manufacturing facilities have been reduced by 35 percent from a 1996 baseline. Interface’s energy efficiency and direct purchases of renewable energy have resulted in a cumulative reduction of twenty-four thousand metric tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions from baseline. This amount is the equivalent to the carbon sequestered by 612,641 tree seedlings grown for 10 years, according to the U.S. EPA’s “Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator.”

4. Waste sent to landfill per unit of product decreased by 82 percent since 1996. Interface sent about four million pounds of waste to landfills in 2010 -- less than one percent of the total raw materials it purchased.

5. Water intake per unit of product has reduced by 82 percent since 1996. Last year less than 71 million gallons of water were used at Interface global manufacturing sites. This metric includes all water used in manufacturing processes, as well as for drinking and sanitary use.

Product Innovation
Interface is moving away from a take-make-waste industrial model, toward a cyclical business inspired by nature. The organization’s journey toward sustainability is driven by research and development in manufacturing processes and product innovation. EcoMetrics also tracks percentage of recycled and bio-based materials in products, as well as benefits from products that are leading to more efficient, less harmful, ways to conduct business. During 2010, product-focused EcoMetrics included:

• ReEntry® 2.0, a process that reclaims old carpet and converts it into recycled raw materials, diverted 28 million pounds of carpet from landfills in 2010. Since 1995, ReEntry has diverted a cumulative total of 228 million pounds of carpet and carpet scraps. Additionally, the company’s ReEntry 2.0 reclamation process recently expanded to the company’s European operations in the Netherlands.

• Forty percent of raw materials used were from recycled or bio-based sources. Interface strives to maximize its use of recycled and bio-based raw materials, utilizing thorough compatibility and footprint analysis to evaluate material alternatives. In the past six years, the percentage of recycled and bio-based raw material use has grown from four percent to forty percent.

• Thirty-one million square yards of the company’s climate-neutral Cool Carpet ™ were sold. This program neutralizes the impact of greenhouse gas emissions associated with the entire lifecycle of the product through the purchase and retirement of offsets. Interface purchased 433 thousand metric tonnes of offset credits from verified emission reduction projects around the world.

Inspired Culture
SocioMetrics collects data in several key areas that track the company’s social capital and investment in people, including the company’s employees and local community members. Measurement takes into account the time and initiative the company commits to philanthropy and volunteering. Last year Interface employees devoted more than 8,000 hours to volunteering initiatives.

Through a project called "Together We Can Reuse It," Interface employees in Thailand demonstrated waste recycling by creating an inventive new purpose for waste yarn—turning the material into knitted dolls. Employees made and sold dolls, generating proceeds that were then donated to a non-profit foundation. Interface expanded the project beyond the company to benefit the local community in Thailand’s Surin province by teaching the craft to community members, providing them with a new potential source of income.

Another initiative involved the sponsoring of a start-up business in the United States to make tote bags out of carpet scraps, employing 15 people in the City of Valley, Ala. These heavy-duty tote bags were extremely popular with customers; and through the new venture, these “one of a kind” bags became available to the public. The new business was set up to operate inside Valley’s historic Langdale Mill, an abandoned textile factory, creating new jobs for the local community.