The following post is brought to you by Interface®. Our partners are hand-picked by the Design Milk team because they represent the best in design.
Design is bigger than aesthetics alone; it’s about great design existing in harmony with nature. That’s the philosophy that led global commercial flooring brand Interface to embark on its journey towards sustainability. Without a doubt, beautiful floors have the ability to take the design of a space to the next level, but it’s so much more than that. Interface challenges itself to create the greatest good for the environment by developing innovative production processes and delivering flooring specified by designers and architects that is better for the planet. The company’s achievements can’t help but make you wonder: are you asking enough of your manufacturers?
“In 2021, is it good enough for a product to be of the right aesthetic, the proper performance and at the right price? The answer is ‘no.’ As designers, we are aware that embodied carbon, or the carbon that is associated with the making of products, is responsible for 11% of greenhouse gas emissions. We know the ice caps are melting and too much carbon in the atmosphere is a primary cause. Public health is affected as well – not just for future generations but for today” said Chip DeGrace, Interface Director, Design Purpose. “The definition of ethical design is that our work must meet all traditional constraints and be carbon neutral or better – carbon negative. Designers and architects have the power to participate in reversing global warming in their own work by demanding carbon accountability as a constraint and expecting partners to do the same.”
We are optimists that believe there is always a better way. Our mission is to continue to be successful in the redesign of our company as a model for industry and inspiring others to do the same, proving that collectively we can reverse global warming.
– Chip DeGrace, Director, Design Purpose, Interface
Pioneers in the Commercial Flooring Industry
As leaders of more sustainable business practices in the commercial flooring industry, Interface is constantly exploring, innovating, testing and trying again to pioneer progress. They’ve created ways to work with recycled content and bio-based materials, leading the brand to introduce carpet tiles that store more carbon than their supply chain and manufacturing process emits. Historically carpet has been a petroleum-intensive industry, but Interface’s success in adopting more sustainable practices over the last 25 years shows it can be done. What began as working towards reducing the brand’s environmental impact in the early 90s has led to a bold sustainability goal that aims to become a carbon negative enterprise by 2040 with the mission of reversing global warming.
And it all started with a question from a customer: What’s your company doing for the environment?
Climate Take Back
When Interface Founder Ray C. Anderson didn’t have an answer to this question, he set off to find one. His quest led him to read Paul Hawken’s book The Ecology of Commerce – after which he committed to Interface becoming one the world’s first environmentally sustainable and restorative companies.
What Anderson’s philosophy evolved into is the company’s Climate Take Back
Working toward Climate Take Back
Interface’s entire flooring portfolio – including two of the company’s latest carpet tile products, Open Air
The Open Air Collection
Affordable, hard-working and designed with open space in mind, the Open Air
Designers and end users are often looking for versatile, affordable neutrals for open spaces. Open Air
offers an expansive selection of flooring choices for this type of area, available in our top-selling neutral tones. With Open Air , designers can feel confident that they will find the best foundational look to elevate their space.
– Mindy O’Gara, Director of Product and Learning Experience, Interface
Timelessly modern and made with 100% recycled nylon, Open Air
The Embodied Beauty Collection
The Embodied Beauty
Being inspired by nature doesn’t always result in something that looks like a leaf.
– Chip DeGrace, Director, Design Purpose, Interface
Developed to include carbon neutral and carbon negative styles, Embodied Beauty
Just as designers should expect more from manufacturers when it comes to sustainability, Interface continues to evolve by setting the bar for what designers should expect from manufacturers’ design services. The complimentary Interface Design Studio is at your disposal, made up of a team of designers who are available to help with simple as well as custom or abstract projects, at any stage of the process. Save time and gain new insight with their wealth of knowledge by experimenting with color, visualizing a space or even creating custom products. Interface® wants to ensure the flooring used in your project is just as you want it.
From start to finish, Interface is ready to help all of your design projects impress through their variety of flooring styles and intentional manufacturing. Feel good about your product choices, knowing they’ve been designed by a leader within the flooring industry and have years of development and sustainability efforts behind them. Interface stands high atop their steadfast principles as they continue their journey towards creating the greatest good for the planet. To learn more about their carpet tiles and other flooring products, visit interface.com.
Source: design-milk