John Wells
President and CEO
Interface Americas
Making the Business Case for Sustainability
Sustainability
•Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of
the present without compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs. (Brundtland Report)
•Leave the world better than you found it, take no more than you
need, try not to harm life or the environment, make amends if you
do. (Paul Hawken)
•A sustainable society is one that lives within the self-perpetuating
limits of its environment. That society is not a "no growth" society - it
is, rather a society that recognizes the limits of growth and looks for
alternative ways of growing. (James Coomer)
Business Case
•Competitiveness
•Innovation
•Investor interest
•Customer demand
•Employee engagement
Interface Category Sales
Breakdown 2006
•5000 people worldwide
•$1.1 billion in revenue
• NASDAQ symbol IFSIA
Interface is the leader in the
Global Carpet Tile Market
InterfaceFLOR / BentleyPrinceStreet / Heuga
Brands
2006 Market Share Analysis
All Competitors 60%
Interface 40%
Interface 40%
Interface Named To Business Ethics
Best Corporate Citizens List
Interface, Inc has been
named to the 100 Best
Corporate Citizens List
By Business Ethics
Magazine. The survey
recognizes best
practices in the area of
corporate social
responsibility.
First Mover in Sustainability: Interface Continues
to be Recognized as the Leader in Sustainability
The Economy and the Environment
Which
is
which?
Flows from the Environment
to the Economy:
Materials
Energy
Water
Air
Food
The Economy grows at the
Environment’s expense.
But these are not the only flows.
The Economy dumps its
waste,
pollution,
and
greenhouse
gases
into the
Environment.
And the Economy grows still more at
the expense of the Environment.
How long
can this
go on?
ENVIRONMENTAL
OPPORTUNITIES CURRENT
INDUSTRIAL “LIFECYCLE”
Emissions
Raw Material Extraction
Manufacturing/Interface
Customer
Landfill/Water Waste
Taking resources from the Earth without putting anything back into the regenerative
cycle.
ENVIRONMENTAL
OPPORTUNITIES FUTURE,
SUSTAINABLE, INDUSTRIAL
“LIFECYCLE”
Emissions
Renewable Energy
Recycled/Renewable Materials
Manufacturing/Interface
Customer
Recycling/Composting/
Biodegrade
A Regenerative Cycle where we take less than we give back to Earth, balancing our existence.
Sustain
Protect
Restore
Our Core Value, Our Vision
˜The
first sustainable industrial company on Earth.
˜“ZERO FOOTPRINT” by 2020
˜Help restore our world through the power of our
influence.
˜We call this...
Our Strategy to Get There…
7 Fronts of Sustainability:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Zero Waste.
Benign Emissions.
Renewable Energy.
Closing the Loop.
Resource-Efficient Transportation.
Sensitivity Hook-up.
Redesign Commerce.
Competitiveness - costs are down not
up
Twelve year Progress
• Waste Reduction
˜
$336 million in cumulative avoided waste
• Waste to Landfill
˜
reduced by 70%
• Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Improved efficiencies and direct renewable energy purchases – 37%
LaGrange, GA landfill gas project resulting in a net absolute GHG
reduction of 13%
˜ Green-e certified renewable energy credits (green tags) – 10%
˜
˜
• Water Intake
˜
Water intake per square meter of carpet is down 80% in modular carpet
facilities and down 62% in broadloom facilities from 1996 due to
conservation efforts and process changes.
• Renewable Energy
˜
16% of total energy, 7 facilities have achieved 100% renewable
electricity
Twelve year progress continued:
• Closing the Loop
ReEntry: 103 million pounds of used carpet material from landfills.
˜ Percentage of Recycled or Bio-based Raw Material – the percentage of
recycled or bio-based material in Interface Inc’s global products
increased from .05% in 1996 to 20% in 2006.
˜
• Climate Neutral Products –
˜
Cool Carpet – 11.5 million square yards of Cool Carpet in 2006 for a
cumulative program total of almost 26 million square yards since 2003.
• Resource Efficient Transportation –
˜
More than 75,000 trees have been planted in this program since 1997.
Innovation - accelerating
Nature as a Model
Nature as a Mentor
No Glue Project
No Glue Project
Landfill Gas Project
Investors are Measuring Environmental
and Social Metrics in Addition to
Financial….
Customers are Asking:
•Jeffrey Immelt, GE (10 billion investment in clean tech
R&D)
•Toyota over 200,000 hybrid gas electric vehicles sold – up
from 91
•U.S. Green Building projects currently under Leed
certification are 781 compared to 100 five years ago.
•Walmart is driving change through its supply chain
Employee engagement is driving up
retention and attracting talent
Our supply chain is critical to this
journey because 74% of GHG
emissions happen outside of our
process and inside our supply chain.
“ The
world we have created has problems
that cannot be solved thinking the way we
used to think when we created them”
Albert Einstein
“The future ain’t what it used to be”
Yogi Berra