RAYC. ANDERSON
is the founder and chairman of Interface.
have been imagined 12 years ago. Interface
designers routinely ask themselves such
esoteric questions as: How would nature
design a floor covering?How does a gecko
cling upside down to a ceiling? From such
questions have come some of the most
strikingly successful products in thehistory
of the carpet industry.
Thepeopleof Interfacearegalvanizedby
the sharedhigher purpose of sustainability.
Better people are applying; the best people
are staying and working with purpose. In
my 51 years of working in this industry, I
have never seen anything equal to sustain-
ability as far as attracting, motivating, and
bringingpeople together.
And the goodwill of the marketplace is
just astounding. No amount of advertising
ormarketing expenditures couldhave gen-
erated asmuch, ormeant asmuch, to sales
and the bottom line as the public’s good-
will has— as impossible as thismight have
seemed in 1994.
Perhaps the most amazing result is that
this initiative has produced a better busi-
nessmodel, abetterway tobiggerandmore
legitimateprofits. It isabusinessmodel that
outcompetes its competitors in the rough-
and-tumble of the marketplace, but not
at the earth’s expense or at the expense of
future generations. Rather, it is a business
model that includes the earth and genera-
tionsnot yet born inwin-win relationships.
As validation of the better model, In-
terface’s share price hasmoved from $2 to
$20 in four years, even as it has had to dig
out of the deepest, longest recession in the
industry’s history, a recession it might not
have survivedwithout the enormous boost
of sustainability on the factory floor and in
themarketplace.
Havinga sustainable society in the indef-
inite future depends totally and absolutely
on a vast, ethically driven redesign of the
industrial system, which will be triggered
by an equally vast shift inmind-set — one
mind at a time; one organization at a time;
one technology at a time; onebuilding, one
company, one university curriculum, one
community, one region, one industry at a
time—until the entire system is inbalance
with Earth’s natural systems, upon which
every living thing utterly depends. Take a
lookaround.Whatwill youdo today?
annual electricityneeds of 500homes.
}
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