MissionZero
Interface came to digital scientists with a desire to create MissionZero.org, the most credible sustainability social network and resource on the web. The Mission ZeroTM vision began in 1994 when Ray Anderson, the founder and chairman of Interface, Inc., experienced an epiphany around creating a completely sustainable enterprise. Anderson’s enthusiasm for this vision, which was later named Mission ZeroTM, was contagious. His vision became the company’s vision, embraced by employees at every level and integrated into the company’s culture and beliefs.
Our objective?
To support both businesses and individuals in learning about and engaging in sustainability practices to reduce their environmental impact.
MissionZero.org
This comprehensive site includes the following features and applications:
- 14 categories of sustainability news, incorporating feeds from over 300 hand-picked sites
- A site specific feed reader, making it easy and fun to review news feeds
- Member dashboard, blog, group badges, and news tracking
- Rich group functionality, letting organizations manage members or employees on the path to Mission Zero
- A QnA section that lets anyone pose or respond to a sustainability related question
- Event management and calendaring
- Sustainability missions – specific actions or challenges to help members change behaviors (or just get credit for riding your bike to work)
- Groovy site activity chart that highlights what’s new throughout the site
In addition to working with the Interface team to build Mission Zero, we’ve also helped bring together and help manage an all star group of Mission Zero Founding Partners, including the USGBC, Georgia Tech, and Subaru.
Mission Zero iPhone Application
Sometimes you want to take the good stuff with you. We built the Mission Zero iPhone app to make it easy to stay up to date with sustainability news wherever you are. This free application pulls in popular sustainability news across all major categories in a convenient, easy to use interface. Within a month of the app’s launch, it’s been featured in the iTunes store and has generated over 55,000 downloads.
Development details
MissionZero.org was built using the Ruby on Rails framework . Other tools put to work included Jquery, Simile,and YUI Grids. Of course, to build the iPhone, we used the iPhone SDK.
Summary
We continue to work with the Mission Zero team to help with the marketing launch, develop iPhone updates (coming soon!), and engaging partners. Thanks to an explosion of iPhone members and the growth of group members, we’re seeing a big uptick in site traffic.
It’s a Mission that anyone can believe in.
Jeff Roman
Vice President, Information Services
Interface, Inc.
We had a negative experience with the previous technology company working on this project and were hesitant to engage another firm. But after meeting with Tom and his team, we felt very comfortable moving forward. He spoke our language and provided a clear vision of what digital scientists could bring to Mission Zero. Plus, his personal passion about this project was very engaging. Because of the positive experiences, we have partnered with digital scientists on additional projects, and our relationship continues to grow.
The benefit of utilizing digital scientists’ services is their experience and knowledge in the analysis of a working site. They are experts at what they do and continually push to extend the use and functionality of Mission Zero to keep it fresh and growing. We feel like we have a true partnership with Tom and his team, like they are a part of Interface.
