Ray C. Anderson

Sustainable Business Visionary

Awards and Boards (partial list)

Awards:

• Corporate Ally Award, Possible Woman Enterprises (2005);
• National Ethics Advocate Award, The Southern Institute for Business and Professional Ethics (2004);
• Senior Fellow and Leading Voice for Green and Sustainable Design, Design Futures Council (2003);
• Star Award, IIDA (2003);
• Conservation Achievement Award for Corporate Leadership, National Wildlife Federation (2002);
• Leadership Award, U.S. Green Building Council (2002);
• International Prize for Sustainable Development, George and Cynthia Mitchell (2001);
• Sustainability Leadership Award, SAM-SPG (2001);
• Cochairman of the President’s Council on Sustainable Development (1997);
• Conservationist of the Year, Georgia Conservancy (1997);
• Millennium Award, Global Green (1996)

Boards:

• The Natural Step, USA;
• the Georgia Conservancy;
• Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper;
• Ida Cason Callaway Foundation;
• Rocky Mountain Institute;
• the University of Texas Center for Sustainable Development

Recommended Reading

• The Ecology of Commerce, by Paul Hawken (1994);
• Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn (1995);
• For the Common Good, by Herman Daly and John Cobb (1997);
• Eco-Economy, by Lester Brown (2001).

Publications

Mid-Course Correction, the Interface Model (1998)

Q&A

What started you on the path toward sustainability?

Our customers, especially interior designers, started us on the path to sustainability when they began to ask, “What is Interface doing for the environment?” It was 1994, and we didn’t have answers. In fact, we weren’t even sure what the question was—I couldn’t get beyond compliance: “We obey the law.” While I was preparing to deliver a speech to provide my environmental vision (which I did not have) to a task force that was going to tackle this question, a book, The Ecology of Commerce, landed on my desk. Paul Hawken’s words were a spear in my chest and gave me almost more vision than I could handle. They also gave me the basis for that first speech, in which I challenged the task force to lead our company to sustainability and beyond, to make Interface a restorative company.

Who inspired you, or nurtured your talent?

Soon after I delivered that first speech, I met Paul Hawken, who was among the first of a group of advisers we assembled and called our Eco Dream Team. John Picard, Daniel Quinn, Amory Lovins, Janine Benyus, David Brower, John Knox, Hunter Lovins, Bill McDonough, and Bill Browning were in the initial group. They and many others working in the field—David Suzuki, Jonathan Lash, Karl-Henrik Robert, Walter Stahel, Jonathan Porritt, David Orr—continue to teach and inspire me today. I have also read insatiably through the years. Everything we need to know for a sustainable society is in print somewhere.

What gives you hope in your industry?

Amory Lovins says, “If it exists, it must be possible.” That gives me hope. The progress we have made at Interface in reducing our environmental impact by more than 40 percent convinces me that zero impact is possible, even in our petro-intensive company. If we can do it, anyone can.

Consciousness is rising. Today, we see a clear cut old-growth forest and we know it is wrong. We see deformed aquatic life caused by PCBs and we know it is wrong. We read on a label, “This paint contains lead,” and we know it is wrong, not to mention stupid. We see more and more human encroachment on nature, and we know it is wrong. We see a building that is wasting energy or with interiors finished with rain forest mahogany or an exterior clad in 2,000-year-old redwood, and we know that it too is wrong. And when we see the overwhelming poverty and environmental injustice in New Orleans in this land of plenty, we know that it is very, very wrong.

What worries you most in this area?

Global warming is coming like a runaway freight train. Time is against us, given humankind’s tendency to deny and cling to the opiate of the status quo. Though there are exceptions and victories to be celebrated, global environmental trends are going in the wrong direction and global warming will only make them worse. Biodiversity is plummeting (“The death of birth,” as E.O. Wilson calls species extinction). Our human footprint is growing and the planet’s carrying capacity is shrinking, consumed by our unsustainable appetite for stuff.

What advice do you give to young people who want to make a difference in the world?

I encourage them to develop the ethical awareness that will move humankind toward survival and to urge the market to demand the ethical production of products and built environment. We all have a role in this, for we are all designers and we have a huge redesign problem: we must learn to design a society for sustainability. Above all, we must and we will—together out of enlightened self-interest—learn to make peace with Earth, rather than war.

What is the role of technology in sustainable design?

Interface’s goal is to achieve zero footprint (zero environmental impact) by 2020, and technology will play an indispensable role, as we redesign products, processes, manufacturing, transportation, the kind of energy we use and how we use it, and the ways we reclaim and recycle our products.