full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Erin Meezan: What nature can teach us about sustainable business

Unscramble the Blue Letters


[Presented by: TED Countdown and The Climate plgdee]

[Erin Meezan; Company: Interface; Sector: Manufacturing; Location: USA]

This is a carpet tile that we make. We operate in the building and construction space, which is cosle to 40 percent of gboall carbon emissions. So in that spcae, we’re putting a lot of materials, like flooring, into buildings.

When we started on sutaiinabtsily as a company, most of these products had a significant ipmcat on the planet. We wasted a lot of resources, we recycled nothing, and they had a carbon footprint that we had never even measured or understood. Interface became inspired to take the company in a more sustainable direction. We took our product design team out in the foerst and asked: How would nature digsen a folor? What lessons could nature give us about moving away from adhesives in our business? And that led to an exploration of gecko's feet that allowed us to design an innovation that took the company off glue and really helped us bluid a whole new business by being inspired by naurte.

Open Cloze


[Presented by: TED Countdown and The Climate ______]

[Erin Meezan; Company: Interface; Sector: Manufacturing; Location: USA]

This is a carpet tile that we make. We operate in the building and construction space, which is _____ to 40 percent of ______ carbon emissions. So in that _____, we’re putting a lot of materials, like flooring, into buildings.

When we started on ______________ as a company, most of these products had a significant ______ on the planet. We wasted a lot of resources, we recycled nothing, and they had a carbon footprint that we had never even measured or understood. Interface became inspired to take the company in a more sustainable direction. We took our product design team out in the ______ and asked: How would nature ______ a _____? What lessons could nature give us about moving away from adhesives in our business? And that led to an exploration of gecko's feet that allowed us to design an innovation that took the company off glue and really helped us _____ a whole new business by being inspired by ______.

Solution


  1. sustainability
  2. build
  3. space
  4. global
  5. nature
  6. pledge
  7. design
  8. forest
  9. floor
  10. close
  11. impact

Original Text


[Presented by: TED Countdown and The Climate Pledge]

[Erin Meezan; Company: Interface; Sector: Manufacturing; Location: USA]

This is a carpet tile that we make. We operate in the building and construction space, which is close to 40 percent of global carbon emissions. So in that space, we’re putting a lot of materials, like flooring, into buildings.

When we started on sustainability as a company, most of these products had a significant impact on the planet. We wasted a lot of resources, we recycled nothing, and they had a carbon footprint that we had never even measured or understood. Interface became inspired to take the company in a more sustainable direction. We took our product design team out in the forest and asked: How would nature design a floor? What lessons could nature give us about moving away from adhesives in our business? And that led to an exploration of gecko's feet that allowed us to design an innovation that took the company off glue and really helped us build a whole new business by being inspired by nature.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
carpet tile 2


Important Words


  1. adhesives
  2. allowed
  3. build
  4. building
  5. buildings
  6. business
  7. carbon
  8. carpet
  9. climate
  10. close
  11. company
  12. construction
  13. countdown
  14. design
  15. direction
  16. emissions
  17. erin
  18. exploration
  19. feet
  20. floor
  21. flooring
  22. footprint
  23. forest
  24. give
  25. global
  26. glue
  27. helped
  28. impact
  29. innovation
  30. inspired
  31. interface
  32. led
  33. lessons
  34. lot
  35. materials
  36. measured
  37. moving
  38. nature
  39. operate
  40. percent
  41. planet
  42. pledge
  43. presented
  44. product
  45. products
  46. putting
  47. recycled
  48. resources
  49. significant
  50. space
  51. started
  52. sustainability
  53. sustainable
  54. team
  55. ted
  56. tile
  57. understood
  58. usa
  59. wasted