Path to Sustainability
January 1, 2010
At the head of many social movements is a charismatic and intelligent person who may be considered a little crazy. In the case of Interface, one of the world's largest producers of carpet tiles and interior fabrics, it's retired CEO, author and sustainability convert Ray Anderson.
Lore has it that in the mid-90s, Anderson's managers asked him to prepare a speech outlining the company's environmental vision. Anderson, who had no such vision, was at a loss. Those who've heard him tell the story, like Interface's director of environmental management, Wendy Porter, say that Anderson portrays his former self as a typical CEO of a major manufacturing company who was more concerned with the bottom line than in understanding his company's impact on the environment.
Anderson, however, took the challenge seriously. On vacation, he read "Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability" by Paul Hawken. One of Hawken's chief arguments is that the business community is the only entity powerful enough to reverse environmental and social degradation. The book's illumination of the industrial revolution's offense against the environment stunned Anderson. "Hawken's message was a spear in my chest that remains to this day," Anderson writes on the Interface Inc. Web site.
When he returned from vacation, he met with Hawken to discuss the book and explore ways a large company could remain economically viable and still move toward sustainability.
In 1996, weaving sustainability into a business model was an impossible challenge because in its absolute form, sustainability mandates that industrial operations do no harm to the environment. Anderson envisioned, therefore, a journey, whereby business would at least aim to do increasingly less harm to the environment. In this regard, Interface is guided by mantras such as "leave a smaller footprint on the environment" and "close the loop," which means, in simplest terms, treating waste as a resource and reusing rather than discarding it.
To conceptualize his new creed, Anderson laid down seven focal points along what he calls the "path to sustainability," similar in function to the seven factors for awakening that guide adherents of Buddhism. To measure progress on the "path," Anderson conceived of a system by which Interface companies would be assessed regularly.
When Anderson began touting the system, Ecometrics, his employees were less than convinced. "Originally, a number of them thought Ray had gone off his rocker and that it was the flavor of the day or would fade into the sunset," said Wendy Porter, Interface director of environmental management.
No task force was formed to gauge improvement, but the principles were embedded into everyone's job descriptions and managers of companies who reached goals are rewarded financially.
While money talks, Anderson made believers of his senior managers by educating them about the negative impact of the industrial revolution on the environment, Porter said. "Another reason it has succeeded is that Interface began quantifying the waste and the savings. That required a huge investment in systems up front, but it's good for the environment and it's good economics."
If Anderson's co-workers had lingering questions about their CEO's commitment to sustainability (or his sanity), they quickly became a minority. In 1996, Anderson received the first-ever Millennium Award from Global Green, presented by Mikhail Gorbachev. He was also recognized as the Georgia Conservancy's Conservationist of the Year in 1997. In 2001, the National Academy of Sciences selected Anderson to receive the George and Cynthia Mitchell International Prize for Sustainable Development, the first corporate CEO to be so honored. And in 1998, Anderson weighed in with his own tome on the importance of sustainability, "Mid-Course Correction," which describes his and Interface's transformation to environmental responsibility.
In truth, the company was converted before Anderson became a magnet for acclaim. Today, ecometrics figures, which reveal consistent revenue growth and improved environmental results, assure that the impact of Interface's achievements will be more lasting than the typical 15 minutes of fame. On www.interfacesustainability.com, Interface claims that its efforts to reduce waste and "eliminate all behaviors that do not provide value to our customers" have amounted to a cumulative savings of more than $185 million since 1995. Good economics, indeed, although the numbers have not been verified by an outside party. Nonetheless, the renovations by Interface, which range from minute to grand in scale, speak of an organization committed to change.
Today he watches over the legacy he created as chairman of the Interface Board and extols the virtues of sustainability on the lecture circuit. He set 2020 as the year by which all Interface Fabrics Group companies should reach sustainability. If they do, he will have left a startling footprint on the path to sustainability. F&FI
Lore has it that in the mid-90s, Anderson's managers asked him to prepare a speech outlining the company's environmental vision. Anderson, who had no such vision, was at a loss. Those who've heard him tell the story, like Interface's director of environmental management, Wendy Porter, say that Anderson portrays his former self as a typical CEO of a major manufacturing company who was more concerned with the bottom line than in understanding his company's impact on the environment.
Anderson, however, took the challenge seriously. On vacation, he read "Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability" by Paul Hawken. One of Hawken's chief arguments is that the business community is the only entity powerful enough to reverse environmental and social degradation. The book's illumination of the industrial revolution's offense against the environment stunned Anderson. "Hawken's message was a spear in my chest that remains to this day," Anderson writes on the Interface Inc. Web site.
When he returned from vacation, he met with Hawken to discuss the book and explore ways a large company could remain economically viable and still move toward sustainability.
In 1996, weaving sustainability into a business model was an impossible challenge because in its absolute form, sustainability mandates that industrial operations do no harm to the environment. Anderson envisioned, therefore, a journey, whereby business would at least aim to do increasingly less harm to the environment. In this regard, Interface is guided by mantras such as "leave a smaller footprint on the environment" and "close the loop," which means, in simplest terms, treating waste as a resource and reusing rather than discarding it.
To conceptualize his new creed, Anderson laid down seven focal points along what he calls the "path to sustainability," similar in function to the seven factors for awakening that guide adherents of Buddhism. To measure progress on the "path," Anderson conceived of a system by which Interface companies would be assessed regularly.
When Anderson began touting the system, Ecometrics, his employees were less than convinced. "Originally, a number of them thought Ray had gone off his rocker and that it was the flavor of the day or would fade into the sunset," said Wendy Porter, Interface director of environmental management.
No task force was formed to gauge improvement, but the principles were embedded into everyone's job descriptions and managers of companies who reached goals are rewarded financially.
While money talks, Anderson made believers of his senior managers by educating them about the negative impact of the industrial revolution on the environment, Porter said. "Another reason it has succeeded is that Interface began quantifying the waste and the savings. That required a huge investment in systems up front, but it's good for the environment and it's good economics."
If Anderson's co-workers had lingering questions about their CEO's commitment to sustainability (or his sanity), they quickly became a minority. In 1996, Anderson received the first-ever Millennium Award from Global Green, presented by Mikhail Gorbachev. He was also recognized as the Georgia Conservancy's Conservationist of the Year in 1997. In 2001, the National Academy of Sciences selected Anderson to receive the George and Cynthia Mitchell International Prize for Sustainable Development, the first corporate CEO to be so honored. And in 1998, Anderson weighed in with his own tome on the importance of sustainability, "Mid-Course Correction," which describes his and Interface's transformation to environmental responsibility.
In truth, the company was converted before Anderson became a magnet for acclaim. Today, ecometrics figures, which reveal consistent revenue growth and improved environmental results, assure that the impact of Interface's achievements will be more lasting than the typical 15 minutes of fame. On www.interfacesustainability.com, Interface claims that its efforts to reduce waste and "eliminate all behaviors that do not provide value to our customers" have amounted to a cumulative savings of more than $185 million since 1995. Good economics, indeed, although the numbers have not been verified by an outside party. Nonetheless, the renovations by Interface, which range from minute to grand in scale, speak of an organization committed to change.
Today he watches over the legacy he created as chairman of the Interface Board and extols the virtues of sustainability on the lecture circuit. He set 2020 as the year by which all Interface Fabrics Group companies should reach sustainability. If they do, he will have left a startling footprint on the path to sustainability. F&FI
