Executive Tries to Save the Planet

From Jes­sica Gowan (NYTimes)

As Ray Ander­son was prepar­ing to give a speech at Inter­face, the bil­lion dol­lar car­pet com­pany he founded, he had a stark realization.“I was run­ning a com­pany that was plun­der­ing the earth,” he recalls. While Inter­face fully com­plied with the law, Ray knew that wasn’t enough. So he chal­lenged his employ­ees to find ways to turn it all around, and fore­stalled objec­tions from his own stock­hold­ers. “He bet his entire com­pany,” remem­bers one col­league. And the bet paid off. Today, Inter­face has cut fos­sil fuels by 45%, reduced water usage by 49% and slowed its land­fill con­tri­bu­tion by 80%. Plans are under­way for it to be a fully “restora­tive enter­prise” by 2020. Oh, and along the way? Inter­face has saved over $336 mil­lion.