This interview took place at the Sustainable Operations Summit in Monterey, California.
Ray Anderson, founder of InterfaceFLOR, Inc., faced a difficult question 21 years into his successful modular carpet company. His customers, particularly interior designers, were asking what Interface was doing for the environment. For the longest time, Anderson could only answer that his company was complying with regulation, but when he was pressured into giving a speech on august 31, 1994, he knew he had to reach for a deeper, fuller answer.
Two weeks before his address, a copy of Paul Hawken’s Ecology of Commerce fell into Anderson’s hands and ever since then, Interface has been working towards Project Zero. Not only has Interface slashed their Greenhouse emissions and reduced their energy intensity, but Anderson wants to do more. He wants his company to do good; to restore the environment while influencing others along the way.
In doing so, Anderson has become a symbol for the sort of business leader the world lauds and needs. A successful industrialist who speaks the language of the environmentalists.
