He points to the treaty that emerged from the 1997 environmental summit in Kyoto, Japan, as a sign of a growing international consensus that the greenhouse effect and global warming are real and that the burning of oil and natural gas is largely responsible. The treaty won't bind the U.S. unless the Senate ratifies it. But the mere fact that the treaty exists signals a broad recognition of the problem. At Interface, adopting sustainability has meant reconceiving the business from the ground up, from the composition of its products to the way they are produced, distributed, and even disposed of. Pools and pools of petroleum are drained to make the nylon, which is then fastened in fiberglass and PVC, two known carcinogens.
Old carpet ends up in landfills-an indestructible, potentially hazardous waste.
Interface's progress has come through thousands of small stepssuch as eliminating a fourth of the nylon in every carpet tile. A division in Maine that makes fabric for office partitions now spins the stuff from recycled soda pop bottles and is replacing dangerous chemicals in its dyes. Despite all this, though, the company is still making carpet the old way-unsustainably. That's because nylon is not yet recyclable, Anderson is quick to explain. He tells suppliers that t he first among them to produce a recyclable nylon will get all his orders.