Interface

Interface was established in 1973 by Ray Anderson as a company focused on commercial flooring. Its central product format became modular carpet tile, which gave commercial customers an alternative to broadloom carpet and allowed installations to be configured in patterns and maintained through selective replacement. This format also supported the needs of changing workplaces and other commercial interiors, where individual areas can experience different levels of traffic and wear. The company’s historical identity changed substantially when Anderson made environmental sustainability a central corporate priority. Interface developed the Mission Zero ambition, a program intended to eliminate the company’s negative environmental impact by 2020. The effort addressed more than a single product attribute: it was associated with changes in manufacturing, waste management, energy use, materials, recycling, and product development. Interface subsequently became one of the most visible examples of a manufacturer using sustainability as a core strategic and brand principle rather than treating it solely as a compliance issue or marketing claim. Over time, Interface expanded its commercial flooring scope beyond carpet tile. Its portfolio came to include resilient and hard-surface products, notably luxury vinyl tile and nora rubber flooring. These categories allowed the company to address environments where carpet is not suitable or where customers require different combinations of cleanability, acoustics, resilience, moisture tolerance, design, and maintenance characteristics. The resulting business serves a broad commercial specification chain involving designers, architects, contractors, building owners, and facility operators. Interface’s product and corporate communications continue to connect flooring design with environmental performance. The company has emphasized recycled content, renewable inputs, waste reduction, circularity, carbon reduction, and product-level sustainability information. Its sustainability direction has developed from the Mission Zero framework toward longer-term efforts focused on reducing and ultimately reversing environmental impacts. The details of targets and progress are period-specific and should be assessed against the company’s current reporting and product documentation. Today, Interface is an active, publicly traded commercial-flooring company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and traded under the symbol TILE. Its official market description covers commercial carpet tile and hard-surface flooring, including LVT and nora rubber flooring. The brand’s enduring distinction is the combination of modular commercial flooring expertise with a sustainability agenda that has shaped its corporate narrative, product development, and market positioning.

1. 1973Company founded

   Ray Anderson founded Interface as a commercial flooring company.

   Source
2. Mission Zero introduced

   Interface adopted the Mission Zero ambition to eliminate the negative environmental impact of its operations and products by 2020.

   Source
3. Portfolio expanded into resilient flooring

   Interface developed a broader commercial flooring portfolio including LVT and nora rubber flooring alongside modular carpet tile.

   Source

Commercial flooring that combines design flexibility, performance, modular installation, and sustainability-oriented material and manufacturing practices.

• Modular carpet tileCommercial carpet

  Interface’s core commercial flooring category. Carpet tiles are designed for flexible layouts, pattern variation, targeted replacement, and commercial maintenance. They are used across workplace, hospitality, education, healthcare, retail, and other institutional interiors. The modular format is also central to the company’s sustainability and resource-efficiency positioning.

• Luxury vinyl tileResilient flooring

  A hard-surface commercial flooring category offered by Interface for spaces requiring resilient performance and a non-carpet finish. LVT broadens the company’s design and specification range and can be used where visual flexibility, cleanability, and durability are important considerations.

• nora rubber flooringResilient rubber flooring

  Rubber flooring offered through the nora business for commercial and institutional applications. It extends Interface’s hard-surface portfolio and addresses projects that require resilient flooring with performance characteristics distinct from carpet tile and LVT.

• Mission Zero

  Global

  Interface’s long-term sustainability initiative set an ambition to eliminate the company’s negative environmental impact by 2020. It connected operational improvements, material choices, waste reduction, recycling, energy, and product development.

  Outcome. The initiative became a defining part of Interface’s corporate identity and sustainability positioning. The available reference does not provide a complete independently verified assessment of the target’s final achievement.

  Source

• Adoption of the Mission Zero sustainability strategyStrategy

  Interface’s leadership identified environmental impact as a strategic issue affecting manufacturing, materials, waste, energy, and the company’s long-term role in the built environment.

  What changed. The company adopted Mission Zero and integrated sustainability objectives into operations, product development, and corporate positioning.

  Aftermath. Sustainability became one of Interface’s most distinctive brand characteristics and remained linked to its commercial flooring proposition.

  Source

1. Commercial Carpet Tile & Resilient Flooring | Interface