Interface Commits to Absolute Emission Reduction Efforts to Solve Climate Crisis
Sustainability Leader Updates Carbon Plan to Meet Ambitious Climate Goals
Interface, Inc. (NASDAQ:TILE), the global flooring solutions company and leader in sustainability, today announced it is focusing on direct carbon reduction and carbon storage to meet the urgency of the climate crisis. The company is aligning its strategy to meet its climate commitments, which do not allow for carbon offsets.
The planet is at an inflection point and absolute emission reductions are critical to solving the climate crisis. Beginning in 2025, Interface will repurpose former offset investments to accelerate innovation projects that will result in direct carbon reductions and carbon storage both internally and throughout its supply chain.
"We're ‘all in' on solving the climate crisis. We've made incredible progress in our 30-year sustainability journey, and we're committed to achieving our ambitious environmental sustainability goals without carbon offsets," said Laurel Hurd, CEO of Interface. "Carbon negative carpet tile changed everything for Interface. We now know it's possible to store more carbon than we emit – and we believe we can accomplish this across our product portfolio, from carpet tile to resilient flooring. We want to challenge ourselves and others to become carbon negative, enterprise wide, without offsets. We hope to continue to inspire industry to join us to make an even bigger impact through our collective action focused on absolute carbon reduction."
Interface's Carbon Footprint Reduction Plan
Interface offers the lowest carbon footprint carpet tile products in the industry, based on publicly available emissions data in Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). The company has made dramatic progress through three decades of innovation in global carpet tile manufacturing, raw material sourcing, collaboration with suppliers, and a focus on the full lifecycle of its products including restoration to keep products in place, as well as programs for reuse and recycling across the globe.
Interface is applying these unique and market-leading approaches to its resilient flooring to accelerate improvements across its entire product portfolio.
Examples of current and future initiatives that may benefit from additional investment include:
- Reimagining product development and manufacturing to drive carbon reduction and storage
- Reducing the carbon footprint of resilient products through manufacturing and raw material innovations and increasing recycled content
- Increasing the use of biobased materials across all product categories
- Exploring opportunities and partnerships in our supply chain to address Scope 3 emissions in the future
- Identifying and driving commercial adoption of circular models across all product categories
"Our carbon plan is simple: Avoid. Reduce. Store. Inspire," said Liz Minné, Head of Global Sustainability Strategy at Interface. "We're doubling down to store more carbon than we emit across our entire enterprise. We're avoiding and reducing emissions throughout our product manufacturing, our business operations, and our supply chain, and working to store more carbon in our products. We've been charting this course for 30 years, and we won't stop until we achieve carbon negativity, without offsets, by 2040. And we hope we inspire others to do the same."
Interface's Climate Goals
Interface will focus its efforts on direct carbon reduction and carbon storage innovation projects to meet its ambitious environmental sustainability goals, which include:
- By 2030, to achieve targets validated by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) to halve its absolute Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions, to halve absolute Scope 3 emissions from purchased goods and services, and to reduce business travel and employee commuting emissions by 30%, all from a 2019 baseline year.
- By 2040, to become a carbon negative enterprise, without offsets.
Carbon Offset Program Updates
As of April 30, 2024, Interface will discontinue its Carbon Neutral Floors™ and Carbon Neutral Enterprise programs to increase project budgets as the company continues to identify opportunities for decarbonization in a rapidly evolving market for climate solutions. Interface will offer verified carbon credits for all customer purchases through the end of 2024.
Interface's calculations and carbon footprint data are third-party verified, including full life cycle impacts of its products and Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions of its business, without offsets. These verified impacts are reported in EPDs, product specifications, and annual EcoMetrics and Impact Reports.
For more information on Interface's sustainability journey and the company's climate ambitions, go to: http://www.interface.com/allin.
About Interface
Interface, Inc., (NASDAQ:TILE) is a global flooring solutions company and sustainability leader, offering an integrated portfolio of carpet tile and resilient flooring products that includes Interface® carpet tile and LVT, nora® rubber flooring, and FLOR® premium area rugs for commercial and residential spaces. Made with purpose and without compromise, Interface flooring brings more sophisticated design, more performance, more innovation, and more climate progress to interior spaces. A decades-long pioneer in sustainability, Interface remains "all in" on becoming a restorative business. Today, the company is focusing on carbon reductions, not offsets, as it works toward achieving its verified science-based targets by 2030 and its goal to become a carbon negative enterprise by 2040.
Learn more about Interface at interface.com and blog.interface.com, nora by Interface at nora.com, FLOR at FLOR.com, and the company's sustainability journey at interface.com/sustainability.
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Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:
This news release contains forward-looking statements, including, in particular, statements about Interface's plans, strategies, and prospects. These are based on the Company's current assumptions, expectations, and projections about future events. Although Interface believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, the Company can give no assurance that these expectations will prove to be correct or that savings or other benefits anticipated in the forward-looking statements will be achieved. The forward-looking statements set forth involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any such statement, including but not limited to risks and uncertainties under the heading "Risk Factors" included in Part I, Item 1A of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023. You should also consider any additional or updated information included under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's subsequent annual and quarterly reports. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date made. The Company assumes no responsibility to update or revise forward-looking statements and cautions investors not to place undue reliance on any such statements. References and links to websites contained herein are for reference purposes only, and the content of such websites is not a part of this news release or incorporated by reference herein.
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