The Build Ahead 2027 · Question 03 / 10 · Partner perspective
With
Jay LanierGlobal Head of Market Sustainability, Interface
Global modular flooring manufacturer Interface is already moving the needle when it comes to material transparency. Its 2025 Impact Report says the company has published Environmental Product Declarations for all standard carpet tile and LVT globally, as well as 98% of nora® rubber products sold in 2025. It has also published Health Product Declarations across most of its portfolio.
But making product data available is only part of the challenge. How manufacturers communicate that information—and how specifiers interpret it—will be just as important in 2027, says Jay Lanier, global head of market sustainability at Interface.
Knowing what’s in a product will be the expectation in 2027, he says, but not every manufacturer will approach transparency in the same way. Many will comply in good faith, while some may try to “overwhelm” specifiers with more information than they could ever want, making it too much to read. “There will always be those who take the ‘How do we make it look like we’re doing what they want us to do without actually sharing much?’ approach,” he says. “It’s this idea of almost being over-transparent.”
For specifiers, the challenge will be distinguishing useful disclosure from information overload—and identifying which data matters most to a project. “Is it a matter of truly knowing what’s in something, or are there hot button topics or particular materials with higher standards that you’re searching for?” Lanier says.
What’s the narrative? What is the data actually telling you?
Jay Lanier, global head of market sustainability, Interface
That focus matters as the definition of a “better material” continues to expand beyond ingredient disclosure alone. Interface is using recycled content, bio-based materials, and captured carbon in many parts of its flooring portfolio. Today more than 50% of its materials are recycled or bio-based globally. Its EPD program also allows the underlying life cycle impacts of its products to be independently evaluated, rather than relying solely on sustainability claims.
Once specifiers understand what’s in a product, the next step is putting that information to work, Lanier says. The story behind the data—and how manufacturers communicate it—will be vital in 2027. “What’s the narrative? What is the data actually telling you?” he says.
Manufacturers, he adds, need to explain not only what a product contains, but also why its ingredients and material choices matter. “‘We substituted this material for a more benign material, or with a material that has a lower carbon footprint, or we made a significant change to the recycled content that goes with it,’ for example.”
Lanier says moving to benign-oriented, bio-based materials and recycled content is crucial for the replacement of any past, less than stellar materials. There’s also an opportunity to not only listen to customers and provide more sustainable options, but to make life better for customers through what you create, he says. “Not only are we being transparent, but we’re taking it beyond being free of X material, replacing it with a supply chain that leaves participants in it, from a social standpoint, better off than they would have been had they not participated at all. It’s this idea of meeting compliance and then taking extra steps to feel regenerative.”
He points to Interface’s partnership with ZSL (Zoological Society of London) and Aquafil as one example. In 2012 the organizations launched Net-Works, a program that collected marine waste like nets from beaches to create new and less extractive opportunities for people in the Philippines. From there Interface integrated these fishing communities into their supply chain as a source of recycled nylon. “These are incredible outcomes. We’re reaching that extra step into a supply chain for not only considerations of efficiency, but considerations of humanity, which I think is really cool,” Lanier says.
He says Interface is dedicating much of its own research to material innovation, like bio-based inputs, and he expects that to dominate some conversations in 2027. The company is committed to accelerating use of new raw materials and innovative solutions in its products as part of its strategy to become carbon negative by 2040.
“If you’re doing bio-based materials correctly, you’re replacing fossil-based materials with bio-based materials,” he says, noting the importance of care around sensitive spaces, being sure not to endanger habitat on your mission to extract bio-based materials. “You have to be really thoughtful. As we bend away from fossil fuels, especially based on pricing as you see right now, it puts us in a position where we can think about materials that are much more rapidly renewable and, by nature, a bit more benign.”
Most recently Lanier is most proud of Interface’s material innovation within its nora rubber flooring portfolio. In 2025 Interface announced an industry-first carbon-negative rubber flooring prototype, substituting bio-based and carbon-storing raw materials for higher-footprint alternatives. That initiative remains an active area of development. As part of that work Interface advanced elements of the underlying technology through the 2026 launch of noravant™, a first-of-its-kind PVC-free resilient flooring solution that delivers high performance with a low carbon footprint, he says.
“noravant combines bio-based material, natural rubber, and an incredibly low carbon footprint,” Lanier says. Additionally, given its high hygienic standards, with excellent resistance to stains and harsh chemicals, he says noravant is a health care favorite. “That’s an industry that’s increasingly asking their supply chains how they are contributing to public health outcomes.”
Beyond performance and sustainability benefits the product also allows for health care spaces to meet the aesthetic needs of patients and caregivers. Designers at the YUNA Fertility Center in St. Gallen, Switzerland, looked for design materials to cultivate an environment where patients immediately feel calm and at ease. They selected noravant® timber from Interface, a warm woodgrain rubber floor, to complement a regenerative, coordinated interior concept.
Another milestone on the journey to fully understand the impact of its materials, Interface recently completed a pilot Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) of natural rubber used within select nora rubber flooring products. The pilot was designed to help Interface better understand the social conditions associated with natural rubber production and sourcing. The S-LCA contributes to a more complete understanding of product impact by complementing environmental data with insight into the people, communities, and upstream factors connected to material production. “Natural rubber has a complex upstream supply chain that extends beyond manufacturing. Understanding how the material is cultivated, harvested, collected, and processed can inform responsible sourcing, material transparency, and future specification decisions,” Lanier says.
He says recycled content will also show up in bigger and bolder ways across the industry in 2027, especially as pending legislation across the US starts pushing recycled content for the flooring industry. “You’re seeing this a bit in California and in New York right now. What’s exciting about that is that it really is focused on post-consumer content.”
Lanier says New York’s carpet producer-responsibility law (the one expected to require 10% post-consumer recycled content in 2028) starts to shift the conversation from simply recycled content to post-consumer recycled content. “First the conversation was, ‘Any recycled content is great,’ but we’re starting to see a quality differential between the impact it has, where post-consumer represents a much more valuable resource.”
He says getting post-consumer recycled content is not without challenges. “The industry itself is positioned to make that jump in 2027, but the process of getting post-consumer, whether it’s from carpet or other sources, is not always the most straightforward because logistics—not just in the flooring industry but as a whole—are really stuck on the linear take, make, waste model. Reverse logistics are particularly challenging.”
Interface is currently looking at how they can make reusing carpet a more popular design strategy. “The rate at which carpet tile is turning over is nowhere close to the value that’s still left in its ability to perform,” Lanier says. The company is working with an Atlanta area nonprofit, Lifecycle Building Center (LBC), to explore carpet reuse.
LBC has already proven itself with its Brick Reuse program, salvaging and repurposing high-quality bricks from deconstruction projects, keeping durable building materials out of landfills and in circulation. “We’re also trying to generate design love for a material that can be cleaned to within an unnoticeable standard of new,” Lanier says. “There’s a paradigm shift we’re excited to see start to change in the US.”
