OCTOBER 1 2007
AMERICANWAY 53
“If ItExIsts, ItMustbEpossIblE,”
assertsAmoryLovins, cofounder, chairman,
and chief scientist of theRockyMountain Institute, aColorado-based think tank.He
is talking aboutmy company, Interface. Thirteen years ago, when I
fi
rst describedmy
aspirations for Interface, I daresay thatmy fellow industrialists thoughtmyobjectives
wouldbe impossible torealize. In fact, theCEOofamajorcompetitor lookedme in the
eye 10 years agoand said, “Ray, youareadreamer.”Yet, asAmory says, “If it exists,…”
Andwhat was then considered impossible does exist today— it is a petroleum-in-
tensive (for both energy and rawmaterial) carpetmanufacturer that has reduced its
net greenhousegas emissionsby60percent inabsolute tonsand itswaterusageby80
percent (using its 1994usageas abaseline), evenas company saleshavegrownbyhalf
and earningsbefore interest and taxeshavegrownby95percent.
I fouNdEd INtERfACE
in 1973 to produce carpet tiles, or modular carpet, for the
emerging office of the future. Today it is a billion-dollar global companywith opera-
tionson fourcontinentsandsales in110countries.But itwas in1994 that Interfaceset
out on anewmission: tobe the fir t industrial company that, by its deeds, shows the
entire industrial worldwhat sustainability is in all its dimensions— people, process,
product, profit, andplace.With respect toplace, Interface’sdefinitionof sustainability
is “tooperateourpetro-intensive company soas to takenothing from the earth that is
not naturallyand rapidly renewable, and todonoharm to thebiosphere.”
In addition to the conventional accounting measures that re
fl
ect
fi
nancial
performance, Interfacemonitorsother,unconventionalmeasuresofprogressof theen-
Every
Tım
ByRayC.Anderson
DoingEverything
Right theFirstTime,
