Interface Carbon Negative Goal: The Carpet Maker Aiming Below Zero

Interface carbon negative is the goal the flooring company set in 2018. It wants to take out more carbon than it puts in by 2040. For a maker of carpet tile that is a bold promise, and it comes from a company that has been working on the problem for decades.

Where the Interface carbon negative goal began

The story starts with founder Ray Anderson. In 1994 he had what he called a spear in the chest moment, when he realized how much harm an industrial company does to the earth. He set the company on a path called Mission Zero, a plan to eliminate its negative impact on the environment by 2020.

What Mission Zero delivered

In November 2019 Interface announced that it had succeeded ahead of its original 2020 target. According to its sustainability reporting, 89 percent of the energy used in its factories worldwide came from renewable sources by the end of 2018. By January 2019 all of its flooring products were carbon neutral across their full life cycle, with remaining emissions covered by offsets. The company also reported that its supply chain and landfill gas projects created about one million metric tons of CO2 equivalent in positive impact.

Climate Take Back and the next step

Interface launched Climate Take Back in 2016 as its next mission, focused on reversing global warming. The carbon negative target followed in 2018. This is a harder goal than neutral. Offsets can balance emissions, but carbon negative means the company must cut deeply and also support real removal of carbon from the air.

Why readers should care

Interface shows that a manufacturer can set a public target, report on it for years and change how its products are made. It also shows the honest challenge. Reaching neutral partly through offsets is not the same as cutting emissions to near zero, and customers and investors are right to ask which is which. Progress reports will matter more than slogans.

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Sources: Facility Executive report on Interface sustainability initiatives.