In 1994, Interface founder and chairman Ray Anderson set an audacious goal for his commercial carpet company: to take nothing from the earth that can’t be replaced by the earth. Now, in the most inspiring business book of our time, Anderson leads the way forward and challenges all of industry to share that goal.
The Interface story is a compelling one: In 1994, making carpets was a toxic, petroleum-based process, releasing immense amounts of air and water pollution and creating tons of waste. Fifteen years after Anderson’s “spear in the chest” revelation, Interface has:
• Cut greenhouse gas emissions by 82%;
• Cut fossil fuel consumption by 60%;
• Cut waste by 66%;
• Cut water use by 75%;
• Invented and patented new machines, materials, and manufacturing processes; and
• Increased sales by 66%, doubled earnings, and raised profit margins.
In his newest book, Anderson shows that profit and sustainability are not mutually exclusive; businesses can improve their bottom lines and do right by the Earth at the same time.
From the introduction to the book:
The book that follows this introduction was largely written while the Dow was falling from around 13,000 to around 10,000, oil’s price was rising, and gasoline was topping $4 a gallon in the United States. But concern for the future of the American banking system, and the unprecedented entry of government institutions into the world of private finance -- to rescue it, no less -- never once entered my mind, though smart people I know and talk with regularly have been saying financial upheaval was coming. Yet, quite intentionally, I was writing about the future, the future of the real economy -- the place where real stuff gets made and sold, and real services are rendered. It is quite distinct from the financial economy, with its stock market and its various indexes, altogether a sort of imperfect analogue of the real economy.
The point of my story is deceptively simple. Business and industry -- not just American business and industry, but global business and industry -- must change their ways to survive. Some people have been saying this for a long time. Many more are saying it today.
I make no claim to prescience, only to conviction. And by survive, I do not mean maintain identity and integrity within the context of a financial system in meltdown, either. By survive, I mean business must be steered through a transition from an old and dangerously dysfunctional model to a far better one that will operate in balance and harmony with nature -- thrive in a carbon- constrained world, and put down the threats of global climate disruption, species extinction, resource depletion, and environmental degradation.
In a word, develop a business model that is sustainable.
Even as I write this introduction I have not yet settled on a title for the book. But I think it should somehow mention “hubris.” (It probably won’t because it’s not catchy enough.) For there’s nothing quite like staring apocalypse in the eye to humble oneself or a society. To know that nobody has control over events puts the limitation of power into a new perspective. Puffed- up hubris is run out of town on a rail by something just as useless: unthinking fear.
What we need instead of hubris or fear, and what this book offers, is a new and better way forward. And yes, hope, a hope learned from my own, personal experiences running a company that is reaching for sustainability.