Ray Anderson

Thursday, January 21, 2010, 7:30pm to 10pm

The story is now legend: the “spear in the chest” epiphany Ray Anderson experienced when he first read Paul Hawken’s The Ecology of Commerce, seeking inspiration for a speech to an Interface task force on the company’s environmental vision.  Fifteen years and a sea change later, Interface, Inc., is half-way towards the vision of “Mission Zero,” the journey no one would have imagined for the company or the petroleum-intensive industry of carpet manufacturing which has been forever changed by Anderson’s vision.  Mission Zero is the company’s promise to eliminate any negative impact it may have on the environment, by the year 2020, through the redesign of processes and products, the pioneering of new technologies, and efforts to reduce or eliminate waste and harmful emissions while increasing the use of renewable materials and sources of energy.  Ray chronicles that journey in a new “how” and “why” to on sustainability, Confessions Of A Radical Industrialist, which was published by St. Martin’s Press in September 2009.

An honors graduate of Georgia Institute of Technology, Ray learned the carpet trade through 14-plus years at various positions at Deering-Milliken and Callaway Mills, and in 1973, set about founding a company to produce the first free-lay carpet tiles in America.  Today, he chairs the world’s largest producer of commercial floorcoverings.  Interface has diversified and globalized its businesses, with sales in 110 countries and manufacturing facilities on four continents.

In 1997, Ray described his vision for his company, then nearly a quarter-century old, that stands true today:  “If we’re successful, we’ll spend the rest of our days harvesting yester-year’s carpets and other petrochemically derived products, and recycling them into new materials; and converting sunlight into energy; with zero scrap going to the landfill and zero emissions into the ecosystem.  And we’ll be doing well … very well … by doing good.  That’s the vision.”

The once captain of industry has eschewed a luxury car for a Prius and built an off-the-grid home, authored a 1998 book on his epiphany, Mid-Course Correction, and become an unlikely screen hero in the 2004 Canadian documentary, “The Corporation” and in the 2007 film by Leonardo DiCaprio, “The 11th Hour.”  He was a master commentator on the Sundance Channel’s series, “Big Ideas for a Small Planet” and was named one of TIME magazine’s Heroes of the Environment in 2007, with a similar honor from Elle Magazine that year.  He’s a sought after speaker and advisor on all issues eco, including a stint as co-chair of the President’s Council on Sustainable Development during President Clinton’s administration, which led to him co-chairing the Presidential Climate Action Plan in 2008, a team that presented the Obama Administration with a first 100 day action plan on climate.

SBC Board Members

Laura Berland-Shane, Bill Colitre, Steve Glenn, Rob Kramer, Carrie Norton, Lorelyn Eaves