Interface, Inc. (Nasdaq: TILE), a worldwide commercial flooring company and global leader in sustainability, expands its first carbon negative carpet tile collection across Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia. To achieve this milestone, Interface has transformed key manufacturing facilities and incorporated new materials to create its new CQuest™ backings line, which includes a new carpet backing that stores more carbon than any before.

One of these new backings – CQuest™BioX – combined with specialty yarns and proprietary tufting processes, results in a carbon negative carpet tile when measured cradle to gate. This means that after manufacturing the product, there is less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than if the tile had not been manufactured in the first place.

Interface began its journey to develop carbon negative products following the adoption of Climate Take Back™ , which aims to reverse global warming. This led Interface to consider how it could continue to reduce the carbon footprints of its products as it endeavors to become a carbon negative enterprise by 2040. Building on the 2018 launch of its third-party verified Carbon Neutral Floors™ programme, the company’s innovative new products enable Interface to make simultaneous progress toward its goals of becoming a carbon negative company and of helping customers deliver on their own sustainability objectives. By using carbon negative carpet tiles from Interface, designers and specifiers can lower the carbon footprints of the spaces they create without sacrificing function, performance, or style.

Inspired by Nature, Manufactured to Respect It

Through the carbon cycle, nature manages and processes carbon in a way that provides balance to the planet. However, because human activity puts this carbon cycle out of balance, it is essential that society not only reduce carbon emissions but find creative ways to remove carbon from the atmosphere, where it contributes to global warming. Taking a cue from nature, Interface learned to work with carbon by using it as a building block to engineer better products. The company’s innovative carbon negative carpet tiles store carbon, keeping it out of the atmosphere.

Backings That Give Back

To develop its first carbon negative carpet tile, Interface began by investing in its sites in America and Europe to evolve its manufacturing operations to deliver the next generation of its trusted backings platform, the CQuest™ backings range.

Guided by materials science and inspired by nature’s carbon-storing abilities, the company added new bio-based materials and more recycled content to its backings. Then, Interface measured how these materials influence the carbon footprint. These new materials, measured on a stand-alone basis, are net carbon negative –resulting in carbon negative backings.

The new CQuest™ backings line available in EMEA include:

  • CQuest™Bio – A non-bitumen, bio-composite backing made with bio-based and recycled fillers, which are net carbon negative.**
  • CQuest™BioX – The Interface backing that stores the most carbon. It is the same material make-up as CQuestBio with a higher concentration of carbon negative materials.

“By studying nature, Interface has reimagined product design, development, and manufacturing,” said Nigel Stansfield, President, Interface, EAAA. “Our journey to create a carbon negative carpet tile is a demonstration of what is possible and an important step in our journey to reverse climate change. As a company we have prioritised using carbon as a resource to minimise our impact in the built environment. We have created a ground-breaking, design-led product that will support our customers to specify flooring that also helps them achieve their own carbon reduction goals. The long-term effects of carbon negative products offer a new way to shape our future economy and society.”

Today, Interface is announcing expanded availability in EAAA of its first three carbon negative carpet tile styles as part of the company’s global Embodied Beauty™,  collection. The company is also launching a carbon negative microtuft product, Flash Line in EMEA. ​

To learn more about carbon negative products from Interface and about the company’s efforts to reduce its own carbon footprint and that of the built environment, visit http://www.interface.com/carbonnegative.

*Based on publicly available information from The International EPD® System, Institut Bauen und Umwelt e.V., and UL Environment.

**Carpet tiles made with CQuestBio backings are not carbon negative carpet tiles; however, they are carbon neutral across their full product life cycle through the company’s third-party verified Carbon Neutral Floors program.​