Last year, the carpet industry lost on innovator.

Ray Anderson was a pioneer for corporate sustainability, who changed an entire industry when he founded InterFace. Given his relatively young age, we were saddened to hear news of his passing.

Anderson showed the world that corporations can have a focus on capitalism and sustainability. Among many innovations, his company cut petroleum usage in the manufacturing of carpet by introducing modular tiles. His mission and his products inspired us enough to include Interface recycled carpet at our corporate campus.

Recently, our friends at Randall Paulson Architects shared another innovative Interface Concept: TacTiles. This installation is a glueless adhesive that allows carpet tiles to become a floating floor, installed over a hard surface or sub floor. The adhesive comes in strips that are equipped with a radio frequency identification. Data from foot traffic can be converted and measured for a variety of applications, including the following:

Retail. Track product preferences based on shopping patterns within a retail environment.

Office Buildings. Monitor areas of building offices for the proper temperature and security controls.

Senior Care. Determine traffic patterns for patient’s safety and security.

Technological advances continue to accelerate at ever-increasing speed. We’re seeing a renewed spirit to strive for greater efficiencies, consuming less energy. To us, these advances make our world a pretty good place to be living right now. Would you agree?