As you browse the showrooms at IIDEX/NeoCon Canada this year, identifying manufacturing leaders with deep-rooted sustainability commitments requires looking beyond specs and asking thoughtful questions. To help you determine which manufacturers are walking the talk, we’ve created a list of eight probing questions to ask.

The bigger picture of sustainability is achieved through company actions. Whether we’re talking about carpet, furniture, or even beer, there are common elements that define leadership in sustainability.Three of these elements are described below.

• Question Assumptions: Leaders invest in research to understand what environmental impacts occur and where and when they happen. They do their homework, using tools like Life Cycle Assessment, and work hard to practice responsible product stewardship. This often means looking beyond their own four walls and seeking ways to reinvent their supply chain, as well as how they manage the end of the product’s life.

• Celebrate Radical Transparency: The time has come for stakeholders to know the real story of their stuff. Clients need access to more than just the product specs for “green” products. They need robust information describing the full environmental impacts of products for the full life cycle. Leaders need to practice transparency and collaborate with third parties to audit these disclosures and ensure accurate reporting.

• Focus on What Really Matters: Leaders push the envelope for real change and actively create a new future. Rather than accepting the status quo of “take-make-waste,” these game changers aspire to reinvent the way we do business. Rallying behind goals like “Inspire Conscious Consumption” or “Off Oil”, leaders engage their employees, their suppliers, and their customers to create authentic progress towards a sustainable future.

Carry this list of questions (print this page) with you at IIDEX/NeoCon Canada to find out who among the thousands of exhibitors are willing to engage in inspired discussion regarding our shared future. You may encounter a wide range of responses, from fumbling and mumbling to robust dialogue. Either way, you’ll be sure to leave with more than just the standard green pitch.

Question Assumptions

1. What criteria does your company use to evaluate new materials, technologies, or processes?
   
2. How has your use of Life Cycle Assessment changed your company or product strategy?
   
3. How has your company influenced your supply chain to help your company achieve greater sustainability?

Reporting Transparency


4. How does your company report the potential environmental impacts associated with your products’ life cycle, i.e. raw material extraction and processing, manufacturing, use, transportation, and end of life?
   
5. Which ISO protocol(s) does your company follow for reporting the potential environmental impacts associated with the full life cycle of your products?
   
6. Which 3rd party audits your company’s environmental claims?

What Really Matters

7. What does success look like in terms of sustainability? How is successmeasured? How do your employees participate?
   
8. What is the most audacious goal your company is striving towards insustainability?

Share with us what you learned – send a reply on Twitter to @InterfaceFLOR. Or you can come talk to our sustainability team at showroom #10-121.

Lindsay James

Director of Strategic Sustainability