#210 2012 · Interface Inc. (Net-Works program) · Manufacturing / carpet tilespair-two-problems
A carpet company needed recycled nylon and the ocean was full of exactly the wrong kind of net
the problem
A manufacturer needed a steady supply of recycled raw material, while a completely separate industry's waste was piling up as an environmental hazard nobody had connected to that need
background
Carpet manufacturer Interface had committed in 1994 to eliminating its negative environmental impact entirely under its 'Mission Zero' pledge, which meant sourcing more of its nylon fiber from recycled rather than virgin petroleum-based material — a supply chain problem with no obvious large-scale source of the right kind of waste nylon.
Separately, discarded and abandoned fishing nets — 'ghost nets' — made up roughly 10% of marine waste worldwide by UN Environment Programme estimates, entangling marine life and damaging reef and coastal ecosystems, while the coastal fishing communities that generated this waste, particularly in the Philippines, had no market for old nets and often no way to earn income beyond the fishing itself.
the move
In 2012 Interface launched Net-Works with the Zoological Society of London and yarn maker Aquafil: fishing communities in the Philippines collected discarded nets and sold them into local community banks for supplemental income, Aquafil regenerated the nylon into ECONYL recycled yarn through a closed-loop process that could be repeated indefinitely without degrading quality, and Interface used the yarn directly in its carpet tiles — turning an ocean pollutant into a raw material supply chain paid for at the source.
the payoff
The program collected tens of thousands of kilograms of waste fishing net through its Philippine hubs (Danajon Bank, the Bantayan Islands and Northern Iloilo) and generated hundreds of community bank memberships giving fishing families access to savings and microfinance for the first time, later expanding to Cameroon's Lake Ossa region; across its first years the program collected over 300 metric tons of waste net, supported more than 2,000 families, and helped protect over 5,000 hectares of ocean habitat.
what came after
Net-Works became a widely cited case study in circular-economy and social-enterprise circles as an 'inclusive business model,' pairing an environmental cleanup with a direct income mechanism for the communities generating the waste rather than treating pollution cleanup and poverty alleviation as separate problems, and it helped Interface hit its Mission Zero environmental-impact-elimination target in 2019, a year ahead of its self-set 2020 deadline.
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references
- [1]Net-Works: The world's first inclusive business model to recycle discarded fishing netsInterface Inc. (investor relations), 2015investors.interface.com
- [2]Interface Set to Scale 'Net-Works' Program That Turns Fishing Nets Into CarpetSustainable Brands, 2015sustainablebrands.com