Ray Anderson, founder and CEO of carpet manufacturer Interface, Inc., succumbed to cancer on August 8th. Those who work and live outside the sustainability or green business worlds may not have heard of him, but Anderson was the business leader in the 1990s who put his company on the path toward sustainability. In doing so he created a new model for production and commerce that has since been embraced around the country and across the world.
Anderson credited his own epiphany to reading Paul Hawkens' book The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability when it was first published in the mid-1990s. From there he determined Interface would become the country's first sustainable carpet producer. In his words, the new mission would be "to reduce our environmental footprint while increasing our profits. I wanted Interface, a company so oil-intensive you could think of it as an extension of the petrochemical industry, to be the first enterprise in history to become truly sustainable—to shut down the smokestacks, close off its effluent pipes, to do no harm to the environment and take nothing not easily renewed by the earth."
The work at Interface isn't complete, though Forbes Magazine's obituary for Anderson noted that substantial progress has been made toward his goal of a zero-waste company. Since 1994, Interface:
-Cut greenhouse gas emissions by 82 percent
-Cut fossil fuel consumption by 60 percent
-Cut waste by 66 percent
-Cut water use by 75 percent
-Invented and patented new machines, materials, and manufacturing processes
-Increased sales by 66 percent, doubled earnings, and raised profit margins
How many other US companies can claim similar accomplishments?
Anderson was a visionary who shared his enthusiasm for sustainability and profit with everyone. His book Confessions of a Radical Industrialist: Profits, People, Purpose--Doing Business by Respecting the Earth is already a classic in the field. He was also an engaging and generous speaker, not only appearing at business meetings and sustainability fora, but college campuses as well.
The New York Times remembered Anderson as a "businessman turned environmentalist." But he was really much more than that: he was one of the people that helped make the word "sustainable" part of our vocabulary by reminding people that economic sustainability (the "profit" in the "planet, people, profit" trinity) was a critical part of real-world sustainability. His 2009 TED talk captures his approach well.
Anderson's legacy is not just in the carpet business (though that is significant in itself). Most important was his willingness to put his company on the line in service of a vision for a sustainable future. He took ideas from Hawken and William McDonough and Michael Braungart, among others, then set to work to make a better company and a better world.
His leadership and thoughtful reflection will be missed. RIP Ray Anderson.