corporate responsibility

Interface sells carpet to the tune of $1,100,000,000 each year. That is just one reason why the business world listens up when Ray Anderson speaks. Ray describes his ecological awakening as “a spear in the chest,” a wound he has used to both his company’s advantage, and the planet’s. Giving rebirth to 133 million pounds of carpet is just the beginning. Anderson and his design teams are hard at work studying nature’s delicate technologies—like the sticky feet of geckos—to make products better, cleaner, and more beautiful. Here, the founder of Interface share his insights on biomimicry, right-brain thinking, cradle-to-cradle design, and our innate “biophilia.” :...

It sounds like a common enough story. Freshly minted parent can’t find chemical-free clothing for their new-to-the-world child. What makes this version different from so many of the introductions found on new green apparel websites, is that it happened 32 years ago. Heinz Hess created organic clothing for his son, and in doing so pioneered a corporate ethic, through his firm Hess Natur, that is only now being taken up by the most enlightened of businesses.

A model of responsible enterprise that is soon to be making its presence felt in North America. A German clothing company that pays 40% more than they could fo...

Ray Anderson started his company, Interface, back in the 1970s to make carpet. Like any business man, he wanted to shake up the market and make a healthy profit, which he’s done, and Interface now has 17 manufacturing locations on four continents. But this is not business as usual. Not anymore. Since having a sustainability epiphany, as he calls it, Ray has starting steering Interface toward one hell of a goal: zero negative effects on the planetary ecosystem by the year 2020, a goal he admits no corporation has yet reached. TreeHugger has long found inspiration in Interface’s elegant design solutions—products li...

The UK-based Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is a body that regulates truthfulness in advertising. We’ve already seen the authority step in to a number of disputes regarding sustainability claims – including banning a deceptive Lexus ad; a greenwashing campaign for conventional cotton, and claims from Ryanair that aviation accounted for only 2% of global greenhouse emissions. But it’s not just corporations that the ASA has on their toes – it also ...

There has been a flurry of publicity surrounding the ongoing Chevron Texaco case in recent weeks. Pushing the point home most forcefully of all is this animation created for Amazon Watch by political cartoonist Mark Fiore. Find out more about the latest ne...

File this one in the 'how to do it right' category: earlier this week, Interface Inc., the world's largest manufacturer of modular carpet tiles, released their 2007 "ecometrics," measuring the impact of their operations on the planet. Among the impressive numbers: greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are down 82 percent from the 1996 baseline, while total energy intensity (use per unit of output) is down 45 percent from 1996. In a nutshell, these numbers mean that they've learned how to make more carpet with less energy, emissions and pollution.

In addition to typical financial metrics like profit and loss, Interface began tracking their ecome...

Seventeen grassroots environmental organizations across North America are receiving funds from a $450,000 pool of grants allocated by the Conservation Alliance.

The Alliance is 130 member outdoor industry companies who make a yarly contribution to grant fund. Since its founding in 1989, by industry leaders REI, Patagonia, The North Face, and Kelty, the Conservation Alliance has supported environmental organisations to the tune of $6.5 million. Thi...