Sustainability Enthusiast

June 22, 2018

Biophilic Design in Urban Architecture: The Oasia Hotel in Singapore

The Oasia Hotel Downtown, designed by Woha, a Singapore-based architectural firm, is one of the most stunning skyscrapers in Asia. There is, first, the signal-red mesh envelope, a splash of color unlike anything in its neighborhood, and then the surreptitious patches of green that seem to slowly envelop the building. Planted façades are not new…

May 9, 2018

Paramit Factory: A Case Study in Industrial Biophilic Design

The Paramit Factory by Design Unit Sdn. Bhd., Malaysia, challenges the industrial typology that is too often mired in questions of functionality and cost. John Bulcock, the principal architect, is best known for tropical houses, noteworthy for unfinished concrete walls and playful inventiveness with climate. Daylight, greenery and vistas were key considerations from the start.…

March 21, 2018

GreenBiz 2018: The New Carbon Economy and Other Observations

This year at GreenBiz, our Chief Sustainability Officer Erin Meezan participated in a panel called “Building a New Carbon Economy: Strategies for Turning Waste Carbon from Liability to Asset.” We sat down to unravel what that really means and how businesses can work alongside academia, non-government organizations and government to build this new “economy.”  …

February 19, 2018

Addressing Ocean Plastics with NextWave and the Circular Economy

There is an African proverb that states, If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want go far, go together. This is certainly true in the circular economy. We are increasingly seeing companies realize the power and value of collaboration. Just recently, a cross-industry consortium of companies joined forces to tackle the global…

February 1, 2018

Top Sustainability Trends for 2018

To state the obvious, 2017 was quite the unpredictable year. While sustainable business leaders and climate advocates knew there’d be inevitable changes with a new U.S. presidency, few could have anticipated just how volatile the past 12 months were. From the U.S. federal administration’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Accord to the Environmental Protection…

October 27, 2017

Leading with Ambition: A Conversation with Bloomberg

Recently, Interface’s CEO Jay Gould was interviewed at the Bloomberg Third Sustainable Business Summit in New York City. A self-described “accidental environmentalist,” Jay discussed how sustainability drives innovation at our company in a conversation with Bloomberg’s Sustainability Editor Eric Roston. Here are some highlights: Sustainability and performance Sustainability and innovation have always been core to…

October 19, 2017

New California Legislation Moves Us Closer to a Circular Economy

Governor Brown of California recently signed into law an important piece of legislation that will take us a step closer to the realization of a circular economy in the State of California. The Governor signed into law AB 1158, enhancing California’s carpet recycling program. At Interface, we see this new law as a positive step forward…

October 13, 2017

Sustainability for Beginners: Lessons Learned from 2017’s Living Product Expo

There’s no better way to learn a new subject than to immerse yourself in it completely, right? And if you’re on your second week of the job, it makes sense for your employer to just throw you in headfirst. Before I started at Interface, I thought I knew some things about climate change and sustainability.…

October 10, 2017

Creating Biophilic Buildings

What if we could experience the same physical, psychological, and emotional benefits moving through an urban landscape that we experienced walking through a forest? What if we could right our relationship with nature by transforming the built environment in a way that buildings functioned in harmony with the natural world? This opportunity lies in the…