Sustainability And Business
What does sustainability mean in the context of our business? What does it mean to run a business sustainably? We think about sustainable business as running a company not just based on financial performance, but with a broader set of goals. It is about doing business according to financial, environmental and social returns. This is now commonly called the “triple bottom line”, a phrase which was coined by John Elkington and introduced in his 1998 book, Cannibals with Forks.
We think a sustainable business has been designed, or in our case, redesigned, in order to achieve a better balance of these three bottom lines. For Interface this has meant expanding the focus of our company to take into account environmental and social performance, as well as financial.
When we began to look to redesign our business to take into account the environmental bottom line, The Natural Step Principles put this into perspective most clearly. Based on these natural principles, we developed a systems approach to our business and implemented changes. Currently, our use of life cycle analysis, closed loop goals, and biomimicry in design of our products, are all examples of this integration.
At Interface we understand that redesigning our company for the social bottom line means creating a culture that respects diversity. We are focused on developing programs and processes that promote social interaction and cultural enrichment, and put priority on social capital. Social sustainability is also related to how we make choices that affect other humans in our “global community” — the Earth. It covers the broadest aspects of business operations and the effect that they have on all of our stakeholders, employees, suppliers, customers, investors, and local and global communities. Our learning culture, training and development of associates using the Gallup Strengths Finder™ tools and employee engagement programs are examples of this change in action. Our focus on giving back to the global community where we work and live is evident in the hours we spend and projects we support in communities all over the world.
We did not have to redesign our company to focus efforts on the financial bottom line, but we did have to adopt a change in perspective. Really understanding and adopting economic sustainability includes broadening decision-making criteria for business investments and partnerships. It means thinking longer term, looking at a whole new set of criteria for investment decisions and a little bit of taking the lead and doing your part to “move industry.” Our investments in renewable energy projects on site at our plants, as well as our investment in processes that change the way carpets are made through Cool Blue™ and ReEntry™ are examples of this shift in perspective.