I have a deep passion for biomimicry as it is one of the most hopeful approaches to achieving sustainability that I have encountered.  Nature has thrived on this planet for 3.8 billion years, and we too can learn to sustain ourselves if we quiet our cleverness and learn from nature (and remember that we, too, are nature).  Biomimicry puts sustainability within reach for our species, and that is why I enrolled in the intensive two-year, master’s equivalent biomimicry certification program offered by Biomimicry 3.8.

In our in-person sessions, which are held in seven different ecosystems around the world, we seek to learn about the “genius of place” within each system.  One key tenet in nature is that life adapts and evolves in context – meaning that life develops strategies for survival that are specific and dependent on the environmental conditions of the local ecosystem.  By studying the natural history of each location, we develop a deep understanding of this principle and an appreciation for the genius found in nature.

While in Montana’s montane forest ecosystem, I took a particular interest in the ponderosa pine’s adaptations to fire disturbances and researched this species for my Genius of Place exercise.  Ponderosa pines are well-adapted to resist the potentially damaging impacts of fire through a variety of mechanisms.  There are four mechanisms that confer fire resistance to this conifer:

1) the ponderosa sheds its lower, more vulnerable branches as it matures, so there are no branches in the “fire zone”; 2) a thick, corky, fire-resistant bark insulates the tree’s inner cambium from killing temperatures; 3) a deep taproot provides access to water during and after a fire and therefore provides protection against fire desiccation; and 4) in the event of a more intense fire that reaches the ponderosa’s branches, the lengthy needles (up to 7 inches long) provide protection for the pine’s growth buds – the critical resource for future growth.

So what can we learn from the ponderosa’s spectacular suite of adaptations?  In biomimicry we practice abstracting design principles to translate biological wisdom into tangible guidance for human problems.  In this case, I abstracted the following design principles: Utilize a diversity of strategies to gain resistance to disturbance, including: 1) maintain separation between vulnerable resources and the likely disturbance zone; 2) for elements that will be exposed to the disturbance zone, invest in ample protection of the most critical aspects of the system; 3) provide reliable access to critical resources during and immediately following the disturbance; and 4) have a less costly (multi functional) backup mechanism in place for resources that typically are not exposed to the disturbance zone but could be during an atypical event.

The next step in biomimicry is to apply the abstracted design principle to a human challenge in order to create design application ideas.  I believe there is room to explore specific applications of these disturbance strategies in supply chain management.  How many businesses are affected by unanticipated disturbances in their upstream flow of raw materials?  How could we apply the strategies found in nature to improve the resilience of our business systems?  These are the questions that I will continue to explore in my biomimicry studies, and I look forward to sharing more of this journey with you through the InterfaceFLOR blog.

What other critical lessons can business learn from nature? Share with us in the comments.

For stores that use carpet tile, the colors used in the floor are the foundation for the rest of the interior.

“We want to make things fun and exciting and with all the colors available, the carpet tiles certainly do that. I build from the floor up with fabrics and paint colors. I can tone any paint and I can go through the warehouse and pick out fabrics from J. McLaughlin’s line to work with your carpet tiles.”

But it wasn’t just the breadth of color that attracted Larson to InterfaceFLOR tiles. He also saw their inherent design potential. By using multiple colors to create distinct patterns, (even cutting tiles into quarters for smaller scale designs) Larson further incorporates the look of J. McLaughlin’s clothing and accessories. “I realized right away that I could make plaids out of them,” he says. “Being able to take two colors a shade apart and get four tiles to make a plaid or gingham design is really cool. I like that because J. McLaughlin has gingham shirts. They have plaids. It’s kind of a preppy thing, which is their market niche, and it also speaks to weaving and textiles.

Co-founder Kevin McLaughlin adds, “We’re not just selling sweaters; we’re selling a lifestyle. The setting in which it’s sold is important and Doug understands our clothing and how to create the right environment. The carpet tile is fun and versatile and brings out that aspect of our brand.”

More Than Just a Pretty Face

The switch from broadloom to carpet tile was not only because of its aesthetic capabilities, but also because it’s a very practical solution for many of J. McLaughlin’s busy stores. Unhappy with the difficulty of installing and maintaining commercial broadloom and bored with the color options, the flexibility of InterfaceFLOR carpet tile was a welcome change.

Carpet tile installs faster than traditional roll carpet and with much less waste. And unlike broadloom, soiling or damage doesn’t require professional attention. Larson says that in-house staff can easily handle issues that arise. “We always have attic stock at each store but we clean the tiles first. When they don’t come clean, the staff can just pick up the damaged one and replace it.”

Beyond selective replacement, the ability to simply move carpet tiles from one location to another is immensely beneficial – both for efficiency and cost. Larson explains that occasionally J. McLaughlin will open a “pop-up” store to see how it will perform in a certain town. If it doesn’t work out, they remove everything, including the carpet tile, cabinets and light fixtures for use elsewhere.

“Moving and changing carpet tiles is a distinct advantage. We don’t need to keep making new capital investments every time we open a store. These carpet tiles are an inexpensive way to have reusable carpeting that’s aligned with the brand and available in fun, exciting colors. And you know, we could just never do this with commercial broadloom carpeting. It’s been a great product. It’s a lot of fun to work with.”

Project Details
Facilities J. McLaughlin

Locations Shown
Brooklyn Heights and New York, NY; Nashville, TN

Architect/Design Firm
Larson and Paul Architects

InterfaceFLOR Products Shown
Viva Colores™ in Verde Jade, Azul, Verdoso, Verde, Verde Amarillo, Berilo, Esmeralda and Prado
Flor® in Anthracite
Super Flor™ in Seville Passion, Pine, Forest and Primavera
Paint Box™ in Marigold and Cayenne
Menagerie™ in Pumpkin

Photography Credits
All photos by Patrick Mulcahy unless otherwise noted

New Product Launches
We’ll start the year strong with several bold new products. In March, be on the lookout for new styles that will change the shape of our design aesthetic – literally!

Industry Events

• January 30 – February 3 : Join us in San Diego, California for the Professional Housing Management Association trade expo
• February 29 – March 2: Join us in beautiful Palm Beach, Florida for HD Summit.
• March 4-6: Meet us in Las Vegas for the Restaurant Facility Management Association trade show.
• March 14-15: Talk sustainability with us at GLOBE 2012 in Vancouver, Canada.

Special Events

• March 22: Celebrate through conservation on World Water Day.

Speaking Engagements
We’ll also be out and about speaking at several events throughout the first quarter. While this list changes frequently, here’s a look at the current calendar. Be sure to check out the Speaker’s Bureau at http://www.interfaceglobal.com/Company/Speakers-Bureau.aspx for updates.

Who: Claude Ouimet, Sr. VP & General Manager, InterfaceFLOR Canada & Latin America
When: Thursday, January 26
What: Green Building & Remodeling Panel
Where: MiaGreen 2012, Miami, Florida

Who: Nadine Gudz, Director, Sustainability Strategy, InteraceFlor Canada 
When: Thursday, January 26
What: Sustainable Hamilton Breakfast Learning Forum “Journey to Zero”
Where: Ontario, Canada

Who: George Bandy, Vice President for Sustainability Strategy and Diversity                                    
When: Friday, February 24
What: Good Jobs, Green Jobs Conference
Where: Atlanta, GA

So don’t be a stranger! Tell us if you’ll be attending any of the events above and we’ll keep an eye out for you.

The refreshed cabin features recyclable InterfaceFLOR carpet, a brighter color-scheme and a more durable, eco-friendly, and comfortable low-profile seat that weighs less than before. The new design also provides the unique opportunity of greater revenue potential by increasing the number of seats onboard from 137 to 143, all without sacrificing customer comfort and personal space, while simultaneously increasing under-seat room for carry-on luggage.

The aircrafts increased economy and reduction in weight is achieved by using the lightest and highest performing components for the interior, including improved seat filling, cover and frames. By switching from plastic to a recyclable aluminum throughout the cabin, weight is kept to a minimum, while increasing durability. The aircraft’s floor will be covered with InterfaceFLOR carpet-tiles that have been specifically designed for aircraft interiors to decrease weight and maximize durability and performance. And naturally, as an InterfaceFLOR product, the carpet is manufactured in a closed loop recycled process, dedicated to being completely carbon neutral.

Southwest is calling EVOLVE: The New Spirit Experience a win for each aspect of the triple bottom line: Performance, for increased durability, improved fuel burn, and additional revenue opportunity; People, with a new interior that emphasizes comfort and personal space; and Planet, for featuring sustainable, recyclable materials. Watch the video below to see the plane’s interior transform!

This comes on top of InterfaceFLOR’s own donation of $2,500, meaning that the InterfaceFLOR community has personally provided $4,704 to MASS Design Group’s philanthropic mission.

To thank us, Michael Murphy, co-founder of MASS Design Group penned a guest blog post showing how your hard work will help advance MASS Design Group’s mission.

What if architecture could boost local economies? What if design could heal sick patients? Could buildings have the power to empower?

In this day in age, Quality architecture can no longer be determined by a photograph alone. Instead, buildings must be considered in terms of how society uses them over time; an extensive range of social, environmental, economic, and political implications must govern its success.

This broad range of criteria fuels the decision-making for MASS Design Group’s holistic designs, from the 140-bed Butaro Hospital and the 9-classroom Girubuntu School in Rwanda, to designing the policy initiative for Liberia’s new Health Infrastructure Standards. We collaborate with governments, NGOs, private sector firms, and health care experts to advocate for the most underserved and to provide scalable models of community-based development and training.

What’s the inevitable goal? The Butaro Hospital brought 400,000 Rwandans access to health care when it opened in January, but we were equally excited that through the hospital’s construction process, new local markets were stimulated and over 12,000 local community members were trained and employed. We believe that innovation, driven by interdisciplinary research and local immersion, can deliver well-built environments that are efficient, effective, and empowering—and thus have the capacity to break the cycle of poverty.

As we enter 2012, we are launching into similar projects for fostering effective, efficient, and dignified health care, that couple with opportunities for education, creative new markets, and job creation.

Butaro Doctors’ Housing, Butaro, Rwanda

We broke ground last fall on the housing for the doctors at Butaro—a project designed to attract and retain skilled physicians in the area as well as train over 100 community members in sustainable construction methods.

GHESKIO MDRTB Facility, Port-au-Prince, Haiti

To replace the original MDRTB facility that was destroyed in the 2010 earthquake, we’ve been designing a new state-of-the-art tuberculosis facility that implements effective ventilation methods for infection control as well as renewable technologies to maximize the use of available resources, decrease operating costs, and offset long-term environmental impacts. The 30 isolation rooms will provide patients with an effective and dignified place to stay for long-term treatment; construction is slated to begin in March.

Meanwhile, we are continuing to run our CSEB (compressed stabilized earth block) Workshop and Training Center in Port-au-Prince, providing local Haitian builders and architects with the expertise to create and use a locally produced construction material, and we continue to train a new generation of architects in Kigali, working to empower communities not only through access to resources but also through education.

Visit our website at www.mass-group.org or check out our blog at http://massdesigngroup.blogspot.com/ in order to learn more.  We hope you will join our community by liking MASS Design Group on Facebook, following us on Twitter or joining our newsletter list where you can stay up to date on our latest happenings and job opportunities.

Spread the word and ask your friends to LIKE the post, we’d love to donate on their behalf as well.

MASS Design Group is a not-for-profit firm designing, building and advocating for disadvantaged communities with limited resources. Past projects have included hospitals, schools and housing.

AOL by Studio O+A
Moving their headquarters to Palo Alto, AOL’s new headquarters is a reflection of the company’s new direction. With a design that focuses on employee collaboration, the new offices are a stark departure from their previous office motif which feature a darker theme and more seclusive work-spaces.

Senior Living: Perkins Eastman
As the baby-boomer generation begins to retire, demand for senior living residency is seeing an explosion. Perkins Eastman has some experience designing for senior living residences, some of our favorite from this year include: the AirForce Villages II, Westminster Village in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Hebrew SeniorLife: Newbridge on the Charles in Dedham, Massachusetts.

Senior Living: SmithGroup
The SmithGroup also has some expertise in designing Senior Living residences. Bucking the traditional view of senior living—warehousing aging individuals away to play chess and watch television in massive institutional buildings that were plunked down in the middle of cornfields—SmithGroup has create an environment that cater to purposeful and healthy living.

Microsoft Building #4 by Studio O+A
Microsoft’s Building #4 on their Redmond, Washington Campus has received a lot of buzz for their recent redesign and for good reason: Designed by Studio O+A and complimented throughout with InterfaceFLOR carpet tiles, Microsoft’s building #4 makes a strong case for the future of collaborative workspaces. The building features plenty of spontaneous meeting spaces and an abundance of natural light to give employees a unique experience.

HSBC Global Software House, Burnaby, British Columbia
Wright Heerema Architects outdid themselves with their bold and colorful design of the HSBC Global Software House in Burnaby, British Columbia. To compliment their bold design and color choice they chose InterfaceFLOR carpet throughout their installation.

Three Trends in Hospitality Design | May 10
If there was one constant on the InterfaceFLOR blog, it was that you, the readers, loved our Jennifer on Design series even more than we do (and we really love it). So much so, that two of Jennifer’s posts made it into our Best of 2011. The first post to make our list covers the top trends in Hospitality Design. Find out why technology, luxury and sustainability were the trends to watch for in 2011. [Read More]

NeoCon 2011: Make Your Mark Folio No. 4 | June 12
In June we set out to “overthrow the status quo” by introducing the Make Your Mark concept at NeoCon 2011, and that is just what we achieved. The Make Your Mark concept made personal and public spaces interchangeable, setting the stage to blur the lines between public and private spaces. [Read More]

New LEED Pilot Credit for EPDs Rewards Transparency and Performance | July 20
For years, the Architecture and Design community and end users have been seeking greater transparency, apples to apples comparisons, and 3rd party verification of green product claims. Interface, as a company, is committed to EPDs for third-party verification. In July, we kicked off our EPD Perspectives series. The five part series covered all things EPD. This first post by Melissa Vernon kicked off the discussion on the InterfaceFLOR blog.[Read More]

Three Trends in Office Design | August 15
The second post to make our list in the Jennifer on Design series focuses on the latest trends in office design. The office of the future, according to Jennifer Busch, will be all about mobility, collaboration and customization. [Read More]

The Importance of the Complete Picture  | September 28
Anyone who knows our company knows how sustainability drives everything we do. Over the last year we’ve been busily registering Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for all of our products worldwide. We’re on track to have 100% EPD coverage by 2012, all containing 3rd party verified disclosure of product ingredients and of full environmental life cycle impacts using robust ISO protocols. It’s as close as you can get to putting a “Nutrition Facts” label on every InterfaceFLOR carpet tile… [Read More]

Remembering Ray | October 18
Ray Anderson went from a disruptive force in the industry, founding InterfaceFLOR in 1973—to an industry leader both in terms of sustainability and business leadership practices. Ray’s “spear in the chest” moment is now legendary, as is his lasting legacy. Ray Anderson’s impact will be with us for always and from the out pouring of memories and condolences, we know his legacy will be remembered by the majority of our readers. [Read More]

HSBC Global Software House Burnaby British Columbia  | November 14
Many of you loved the bold color palette of the HSBC Global Software House in Burnaby, British Columbia, designed by Wright Heerema Architects and we can see why; the colors and graphics, which are complimented by InterfaceFLOR carpet, look fantastic! [Read More]

Share Your Thoughts with InterfaceFLOR
Don’t see your favorite InterfaceFLOR blog post? Tell us about your favorite blog post in 2011.
 

Take a look back at 2011 with us, as we highlight 5 new products that were absolutely on fire! Here are the tiles that set the tone for us this year:

• Red – Truly luxurious carpet, that is paving the way for more sustainable design. Launched in March of this year, Red set the stage for a year of Redefining Luxury through great product introductions.  Watch Mindy O’Gara introduce Red.
• Raw – The award winning Raw was inspired by organic deconstruction and the evolution that strips away layers to reveal an unexpected inner beauty. Perhaps the best part of Raw is that it is made from 100 percent non-virgin yarn, making Raw’s inner beauty match it’s outer beauty.  Read more about Raw.
• Luxe at Work – Maybe it is cheating to add Luxe at Work; after all, it is really three products under one label. But since each product in Luxe at Work is more exquisite than the last, we’ll allow it. Luxe at Work encompasses the dapper, natty and urbane Smithfield Stripe & Finsbury Square, the timeless and classic looks of Silurian, and the limitless luxury of Striation.
• Permian, Matrix and Distressed – Another trio joins the list.  Introduced at IIDEX, Permian, Matrix and Distressed turned heads while bringing luxury to the work environment.
• Solace and Muse – Ushering in a touch of the outdoors, Solace and Muse brings the warm colors and familiar patterns of the outdoors to the interior. Watch Mindy O’Gara introduce Solace and Muse.

OK, now it’s your turn
Think back through 2011. What products “set the tone” for your year? Did any of our carpet tiles make your list?