Modular carpet maker Interface will complete Environmental Product Declarations — detailed documents explaining the life cycle impacts of items — for all of its products by 2012 and challenged other companies to set goals similar to its Mission Zero program.

Interface became the first North American carpet maker to develop an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) last March, and earlier this year it completed EPDs for three more carpet tile lines. EPDs are based on life cycle analyses that look at products from their raw material stage to disposal and are third party certified.

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In 1995, Chairman and CEO Ray Anderson asked experts in the area of sustainability to join his "Dream Team" to guide the company towards sustainability. Paul Hawken, chair of The Natural Step US, joined this team in the fall of 1995 and interested Anderson in The Natural Step as a conceptual framework for EcoSense. In January 1996 several executives went to Stockholm to learn more about The Natural Step.

In June of 1996, Anderson declared his intention to redesign Interface's business practices to conform to TNS's four system conditions. He announced the decision at a gala event in Atlanta, co-sponsored by Georgia Institute of Technology and The Georgia Conservancy. The audience included 400 individuals representing a broad range of companies and organizations.

In April 1996, Anderson hired Hawken to lead a two-day workshop about The Natural Step for about 50 managers. In June The Natural Step founder Karl-Henrik Robèrt spent a day with the group. In August, Hawken gave them an in-depth two-day training. As a result, Interface decided to train all employees in The Natural Step.