Flooring manufacturer Interface receives special oeuvre award from Sustainable Brand Index for long-term impact

Jury praises forward-thinking Interface and mission to become climate resilient

Flooring manufacturer Interface was awarded a special award for their long-term impact at the Sustainable Brand Index (SBI) ‘Initiative of the Year’ announcement. Interface’s Embodied Beauty™ collection was one of six finalists in the SBI ‘Initiative of the Year’ awards. For this award, an independent professional jury searches for the best and most impactful sustainable initiatives in the Netherlands. During the presentation ceremony, the jury announced that Interface could take home a special oeuvre award. The award is in recognition of Interface’s sustainability journey, which started back in 1994. The company’s mission is to be a CO2-neutral enterprise by 2040.

Special oeuvre award
It is the first time that the Sustainable Brand Index presents an oeuvre award. Jury chair Leontine Gast: “The purpose of the ‘SBI Initiative of the Year’ award is to ensure that existing initiatives are supported and become visible. And this is where an award like this helps. But because Interface has been doing its utmost for the climate since the 1990s – first to reduce its impact, then with the goal of being carbon neutral and now with the new vision of becoming climate regenerative – we decided to give a special oeuvre award. We think Interface is hugely progressive because they have been setting the right example for so long and are trying to tackle problems together in the sector. It would be a shame to look only at the past year. With this oeuvre award we are taking the entire heritage into account.”

CO2-negative company by 2040
Flooring manufacturer Interface provides flooring solutions to offices, hospitals and schools, among others. The company launched their Mission Zero back in 1994 and in 2019 celebrated the successes of this mission such as reducing the carbon footprint of its carpet tiles by an average of 76% and reducing the absolute greenhouse gas emissions of carpet tile production by 95%. Next, the Climate Take Back mission was launched, with the goal of becoming a carbon-negative company by 2040. As part of this mission, the first CO2-negative carpet tiles (cradle-to-gate) from the Embodied Beauty™ collection were launched in 2021. In addition, Interface switched completely to a biocomposite carpet backing in September 2021. Through this innovation, the company has said a definitive goodbye to the more carbon-intensive bitumen, reducing its carbon footprint by an average of 33%, and achieves a high degree of circularity in product construction. For example, the average biobased and recycled content is 88%, measured across the entire carpet tile portfolio made in Scherpenzeel.

Sustainable Brand Index
The Sustainable Brand Index jury, led by Leontine Gast (The Terrace), assessed 49 submitted initiatives to arrive at the 6 finalists this year. The criteria used for this were Innovation, Engagement, Impact and Creativity. Renewaball was voted ‘Initiative of the Year’. In addition to Interface and Renewaball, PLUS organic dairy, Fairtrade Original coffee, Karma Kebab, RESALE, and Zeeman & Het Goed were the other finalists. The SBI Initiative of the Year trade award was introduced in Sweden in 2014 by SB Insight, the company behind Europe’s largest brand survey focused on sustainability, Sustainable Brand Index.