Sustainability

InterfaceNZ is much more than just a carpet company

Sustainability is central to the philosophy and business objectives of the company, with a common international goal to becoming the first sustainable enterprise on earth.

But what is sustainability? For many people, sustainability translates into being "environmentally friendly", but it is broader than that. It represents much more than reducing waste, protecting wildlife species and recycling. Sustainability is a process.

Understanding and adopting sustainable business practices requires a new awareness of the world; the whole world, its natural systems and all of its species. It requires a deeper understanding of how the Earth works, and how man's processes affect nature's delicate balance. In essence you do well financially by doing good environmentally. This is not a cop out – it is a fact. Or put another way – you make a profit to stay in business. You are not in business to make a profit.

Interface globally is a sustainability powerhouse

But it is no good as their partner in New Zealand to say that that is enough and rest on their laurels. What are we doing in New Zealand to reduce our carbon footprint, to reduce carpet going into landfill, to challenge the building community on their build and demolish processes. And that is our challenge and one that we continually seek to raise the benchmark on.

InterfaceNZ is on a journey to have a zero environmental footprint by 2020. It is so inspirational that InterfaceFLOR adopted the same target globally.

On the right you can see what we are doing in New Zealand. These are reality, not Greenwash.

Below you can see what our future journey looks like. Again reality that we want you to call us up on.  Sustainability is a journey not a destination. Together we can make a real difference. But it starts with you, and me – not looking over the fence at your neighbour and saying if only……

Sunflower

New Zealand Initiatives and Achievements

  • Members New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development
  • Member Sustainable Business Network
  • Produced New Zealand's first Triple Bottom Line Report in the construction industry, the company calculates its carbon footprint and is working towards being Kyoto compliant.
  • Sponsor of graduate student at Waikato University to study reuse of InterfaceFLOR carpet tile as a filter medium for road run-off.
  • Re-sampled entire InterfaceFLOR product range using used car tires as well as producing sustainability report card on each product.
  • The Company actively participates in community initiatives such as 'Clean Up NZ Week'
  • Sponsor of Green Office Guide website.
  • Managing Director gives regular seminars on sustainable design practices.
  • Provide floor coverings at little or nil cost to various non profit organizations.
  • Currently changing over vehicle fleet to the new environmentally preferable hybrid Toyota Prius