RESOURCE EFFICIENT TRANSPORTATION

Issue:   We are dependent on fossil fuels to deliver our products and services to our customers. This is not a viable model for sustainable transportation.

Response:   Transportation includes moving people, products, information, and resources. This front is the one that is least within our control and the most difficult to address. A significant portion of our transportation footprint is due to the delivery of raw materials and transport of finished product. We are dependent upon the transportation industry in order to address the issues contained in this front. We are working diligently to make our transportation more ecologically efficient.
  • We're participating in voluntary partnerships focused on reducing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions

      We launched a Transportation Working Group composed of representatives from many of our business units across the world. We are actively working to establish our transportation footprint, including setting a baseline year, developing metrics to monitor our performance, and lastly, we are collecting and sharing best practices between business units.

      Interface is a charter partner in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's SmartWay Transport voluntary partnership. Read the story.

      Interface and its consulting logistics firm, Meridian IQ jointly won a SmartWay Excellence Award in 2006. Read the story.

      In October 2006, Interface committed to make 100% of its U.S. based light duty fleet SmartWay Certified with the addition of the Subaru Outback Limited 2.5i into the fleet and Subaru committed to make the first 60,000 miles of each lease “climate neutral” for those cars leased by Interface associates. Read the story.

  • We're committed to offsetting the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions associated with our travel.

      Trees for Travel™

      Since 1997, Interface has sponsored the planting of more than 62,000 trees to offset air travel by its associates. Interface considers averting climate change to be of utmost importance in achieving a more sustainable future for everyone. We agree with the scientists who believe that CO2 emissions are a source of global warming.

      To help address this global issue, Interface has created an internal program called Trees for Travel, designed to offset CO2 emissions resulting from our business air travel. The program has enabled Interface to achieve notable success on two key fronts: benign emissions and resource efficient transportation.

      Interface has a partnership with American Forests, a world leader in tree planting for environmental restoration. Through this partnership, Interface is committed to improve the local and global environment through the organization's Global ReLeaf initiative.

      In 2006 the trees will be planted in the California Mohave Desert Mountain Communities (San Bernadino Mountains) where approximately 12 million trees weakened by six years of drought are dead and dying due to stress and the bark beetle epidemic. In the fall of 2003, devastating wildfires swept through sections of the San Bernardino Mountains leaving behind areas with close to 100 percent tree mortality. The “Mountain Communities Wildfire ReLeaf Project” is a long-term program that will continue to develop and implement a comprehensive reforestation program in the Southern California Mountains. The mortality rate form the bark beetle epidemic will continue to increase as the infestation spreads, and the continuing threat of devastating wildfires in these areas will increase as well. The number of trees that will eventually be needed to restore the forest at this time has been estimated to be over 650,000.

      For more information on American Forests, please visit their web site: http://www.americanforests.org

      Cool Co2mmute™

      Click here to read about Interface's employee driven initiative for reducing CO2 emissions.

      Read the story that was featured in American Forests newsletter in January, 2004.

      Interface Cool Fuel™ Program

      Interface is offsetting the CO2 emissions related to business related auto travel in company vehicles. Click here to read the story.

  • We're committed to moving information instead of matter

      We encourage and provide teleconferencing and video conferencing technologies to reduce travel.

  • We're calculating the relationship between transportation and life cycle costs

      In the U.K. we have developed a "green fleet program" for company vehicles based on whole life cycle costs.

      Click here to read the story (Reprinted with Permission from HSBC Holdings, plc)

Previous Page