In Business, Creating Sustainable Enterprises & Communities

CARPET MAKER CLOSES THE LOOP

n Business, May-June, 2006, Vol. 28, No. 3, p. 25

A leading textile company - Interface, Inc. based in Atlanta, Georgia - is using nonpetroleum feedstocks for its products with composting in mind when the fibers reach the end of their useful life.

Connie Hensler

IA LEADING GLOBAL manufacturer of carpet and textile products - Interface, Inc. - is now making use of the biobased polymer PLA (polylactic acid), to become even more environmentally sustainable. The Atlanta, Georgia-based firm is also looking into composting its woven products at the end of their useful lives.
The fibers - marketed by Cargill Dow under the Ingeo brand name - are used to produce the fabrics as part of Interface's Terratex brand. “Panel fabrics manufactured with the PLA were first introduced with furniture manufacturers Herman Miller, Allsteel and Teknion, and fabric distributors Carnegie and Designtex,” says Paul Bennotti, Director of Marketing Strategy at Interface Fabrics. “More recently, Interface Fabrics has brought PLA panel products to the marketplace through mid-market customers, including companies such as Davies and IntraSpec. In addition to their renewable resource content, the fabrics must also meet Interface Fabrics' Dye and Chemical Protocol - a systematic method of evaluating all the ingredients in all the materials used to manufacture the fabrics.”
As part of its initiatives to “close the loop completely” with its panel and upholstery fabrics for commercial interiors, Interface is working with its customer, Herman Miller, Inc. (HMI), to keep cutting room scraps out of the landfill. With assistance from the Sustainable Research Group (SRG), the two companies are developing a method for composting the fabric scraps along with waste sawdust from the furniture manufacturing process. With input from Michigan State University Extension (MSUE) and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), Willie Beattie and the Design For Environment team at HMI were instrumental in developing baseline requirements. Mike Bronkema of Shady Side Farm in Holland, Michigan, who already has been composting sawdust from HMI, is providing straw, poultry manure and his pilot scale rotary-drum compost vessel for the development of a commercial PLA composting process. Interface has initiated the development of an in-vessel process to biodegrade PLA fabric quickly under thermophilic conditions.
To ensure that the commercial compost is free of any toxic chemicals, Interface has set up a monitoring program for its products and processes, beginning with the yarn handling stage. The PLA yarns are dyed and treated using Interface Fabrics' Dye and Chemical Protocol, which helps avoid the incorporation of any toxic materials into the finished fabric.
Developing a means for composting from a point source supply, like a furniture manufacturer, is the easy part. Setting up an infrastructure to recover postconsumer biodegradable plastics is a greater challenge. Product reclamation programs designed to return used polymers to recycling and composting sites are few. Interface Fabrics has a program in place called ReSKU™ to recover fabric waste and Interface's flooring businesses feature the ReEntry® program that takes back postconsumer carpet (regardless of manufacturer) for recycling. Both programs are focused on delivering the highest possible level of reuse for reclaimed products and both are being expanded to incorporate the recovery of biobased polymer products.

Connie Hensler is Director of Sustainable Research at Interface Research & Development in LaGrange, Georgia.

Sidebar:

CONNECTING GREEN ACTIONS WITH PROFITABLE RESULTS

THERE'S A GROUNDSWELL for sustainable change in American business,” Ray Anderson, CEO of Atlanta, Georgia-based Interface, Inc. observed in a 1999 interview with In Business. Anderson's career as a “Green CEO” was chronicled earlier that year in a Fortune magazine profile - how he charged through Georgia Tech on a football scholarship, then upset a comfortable career with a leading carpetmaker by quitting to start Interface in 1973.
In 1994, after reading Paul Hawken's Ecology of Commerce, Anderson challenged himself and his company to adopt new ways that would be less damaging to the planet. He dedicates his ecomission to his six grandchildren. But corporate change and cleanup do not come easily. About the time Interface began to discuss specific sustainably-superior methods, sales at Interface were in a slump. “Not only did he need to revive the business,” notes Fortune, “but he also felt compelled to do so in a way consistent with his new green ideals.”
With advice from an “ecodream team” that included Amory Lovins, Hawken, David Brower and Bill McDonough - and a new president named Charles Eitel who took over the carpet-tile division - the turnaround strategy worked on all fronts. Interface's stock price went up 70 percent, and profits were up 81 percent since 1994, according to the 1999 In Business report. Emissions were down 30 percent, and solid waste generation was cut in half.
All these developments led to $19 million in cumulative extra cash flow, net of $62 million of R&D, and $14 million of capital spent in converting to sustainable technology. “We're not the only company who has discovered that sustainability makes sound business sense. That's why there is a powerful groundswell for sustainable change in corporate America,” proclaimed Anderson in 1999.