The Question of Greenwash

Clinton Squires is the Australian General Manager of InterfaceFLOR, a world leader in the manufacture of modular commercial flooring and Australia's first 100 per cent carbon neutral manufacturing company.

Q: As an Australian company working within the design sector what are your concerns or misgivings?

A: It's hard to escape the rash of slick marketing campaigns that have sprouted to capitalise on our desire to do the right thing by the planet.

Unfortunately slick is the operative word in many cases - cute ideas dreamed up in marketing departments with little proof to back up the claims made.

A Federal examination of carbon offset claims is a welcome first step to reining in blatant "green washing".

InterfaceFLOR, as a world leader in the manufacture of modular commercial flooring and sustainability, is concerned to ensure there is a broad understanding in the marketplace of product stewardship.

It is only when a full life cycle analysis - a cradle to end-of-life review - is undertaken that the true impacts of a product can be accounted for and a strategy put in place to tackle these impacts.

Q: What would you do differently?

A: We wouldn't do anything differently.

Sustainability has been at the core of every creative, manufacturing and business decision InterfaceFLOR has made since 1994. That will continue until we achieve our goal of leaving zero environmental footprint by 2020.

The company has reduced its global ecological footprint by 40 per cent.

In Australia our sustainability journey has yielded excellent results:

- Reducing emissions of greenhouse gases by 25 percent per square metre of carpet produced between 2004 and 2007.
- Reducing energy consumption between 1996 and 2007 by 52.9%.
- Reducing water use between 1998 and 2007 by 51.2%.

Q: What is the No1 challenge you face?

A: Our life cycle analysis at InterfaceFLOR found that 75 per cent of the impact of manufacturing new modular tiles comes from the production and supply of raw materials rather than the manufacturing process.

This has led us to take a holistic approach and influence our suppliers and end users, taking responsibility for our product's full life cycle.

We are in effect creating a "green ripple effect" by asking our suppliers and customers to join us in reducing their ecological footprint.

It isn't always easy but it is certainly worthwhile.

The second challenge is 'closing the loop' by creating cyclical systems in which the waste from one process or product is "food" for another, preserving the natural systems of our Earth.

InterfaceFLOR has pioneered one of the industry's most successful carpet recycling programs - ReEntry.

Through clever new world-first technology ReEntry harvests reclaimed vinyl carpet - both the carpet backing and face cloth - and recycles each into new product.

The vinyl and nylon can be recycled again and again, keeping them in the production loop and reducing InterfaceFLOR's impact on the environment by 30 per cent.

Q: Where do you think the greatest opportunity for change lies?

A: By working hard to achieve our goal of zero environmental footprint by 2020 InterfaceFLOR is setting the industry standard.

By setting challenging benchmarks we hope to influence others in the industry to embark on a true sustainability journey.