In episode 10, we welcome special guest Connie Hensler, Global Director of Environmental Management and Product Stewardship at global flooring manufacturer Interface. A long-term and passionate advocate of a more sustainable approach to design and manufacturing, Connie joins Neil, Jim and Shelley to discuss how to break traditional product development thinking with moonshot goals, all while achieving financial - and sustainable - success.

In this Episode

Shelley - For the sake of our listeners who may not know much about Interface, can you describe what Interface manufactures and its history with sustainability, because it's got a bit of a unique history. [00:34]

• Connie - Interface is a global flooring manufacturer. We make modular flooring, like carpet tiles, resilient and rubber flooring and we're a mid sized company with annual sales of just over a billion dollars. We're headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, but we have manufacturing sites in many countries across Europe and the Asia Pacific region. But we aren't really known for our flooring as much as we are known for our design and sustainability leadership. We're more of a sustainability company who happens to make flooring. That's the perception of us in the marketplace, I think. [00:47]
• Neil - But you do it well, and that's the point at the end, right?
• Connie - We were lucky to be put on a mission many years ago, back in 1994, when our founder, Ray Anderson, had his environmental epiphany about the damage that the company does to the environment. And he really turned the entire company's mission towards eliminating that environmental impact. Of course, we still have to make flooring and we have to make money to support that sustainability habit, but that's really where all of our focus is and has been since 1994.

Neil - Do you remember how big of a company you were back in 1994? [01:54]

• Connie - I don't remember the exact figure. We were certainly a lot smaller than we are today. We have acquired a lot of companies and we have had organic growth. Back in 1994, carpet tile was our only flooring. We didn't have the other businesses. And carpet tile was just in its infancy. Most carpet wasn't modular back then. It was broad loom and so it's been a real revolution in the flooring industry to move from, you know, giant rolls of flooring down to the modular concept, which is so much more sustainable. So we've grown a lot since 1994.
• Neil - The reason I asked is flooring has been around for a long time. The kind of flooring has changed and as you described, the products have evolved over time, but it's not nuclear fusion, it is not artificial intelligence; these kinds of themes that everybody focuses on. It's quite unique to find something that makes you stand out and it's not often that a company finds it. It seems you guys banked on being the most sustainable company of your kind. Would that be fair to say?
• Connie - Oh, yeah, definitely. We just did it so early in the game before anybody else was doing it. I think that's what really made us originally stand out.

Neil - So how did it start? [03:21]

• Connie - That was so long ago. We began with Mission Zero - our goal to eliminate all of our environmental impact. And it wasn't just a top-down initiative, it was driven by the chairman CEO of the company, which is immeasurable in the impact that can provide. But it was also a groundswell on the factory floor because we engaged all employees in it. Because let's face it, anybody who's in the company who's doing anything, whether you're answering the phone o...