Beautiful thinking: the Net-WorksTM story

Jon Khoo, Co-innovation Partner

ENVIRONMENT?What are you doing about the

Ray C. Anderson (1934-2011)Founder of Interface

MISSION ZEROOur promise to eliminate any negative impact our company may have on the environment by the year 2020

“For those who think business exists to make a profit, I suggest they think again. Business makes a profit to exist. Surely it must exist for some higher, nobler purpose than that.”

PEOPLE AND PLANET?What are you doing for

#Nets2Carpet

#Nets2Carpet

#Nets2Carpet

660 million people rely on the ocean for their livelihoods

#Nets2Carpet

640 thousand tons of waste fishing material is discarded every year#Nets2Carpet

Many coastal communities don’t have access to waste channels… instead waste piles upon beaches or in the ocean#Nets2Carpet

Nets discarded in the water can take hundreds of years to break down#Nets2Carpet

Impact of marine plastic on marine life

Image courtesy of Surfers Against Sewage

#Nets2Carpet

What can a carpet tile do?

#Nets2Carpet

#Nets2Carpet

Net-WorksTM: A community-based supply chain transforming fishing nets to carpet

#Nets2Carpet

Community collection and quality control#Nets2Carpet

Nets sold via community banks… turning waste to wealth#Nets2Carpet

Access to finance via self-sustaining community banks#Nets2Carpet

Nets then sold to the Net-Works partnership#Nets2Carpet

Regeneration of the nets by Aquafil into yarn

Interface buys the regenerated yarn for its products

#Nets2Carpet

Current status

80.4T collected to date

Expansion:

Philippines,

Cameroon & beyond

Community impact

#Nets2Carpet

Lesson 1: sustainable ideas must make business sense

#Nets2Carpet

#Nets2Carpet

Lesson 2: get the right people around the table... and remember to consider the unusual suspects

#Nets2Carpet

#Nets2Carpet

Lesson 3: design to scale and replicate

#Nets2Carpet

#Nets2Carpet

Brighten the corner where you are

Thank you