# Interface founder and chairman Ray Anderson, visionary entrepreneur and champion of the environment

- Link: https://greenlivingguy.com/2011/08/interface-founder-and-chairman-ray-anderson-visionary-entrepreneur-and-champion-of-the-environment/
- Published: 2011-08-11T14:21:14-04:00
- Author: greenlivingguy

_**Provided to reprint with Permission**_

_“Interface and the world have lost a great man,” said Dan Hendrix, President and
Chief Executive Officer of Interface, announcing that Ray C. Anderson lost a 20-
month battle with cancer today.  Surrounded by his family, Ray died at his home 
in Atlanta._

_Dan went on to say, “Ray was and continues to be our company’s heart and soul. 
His iconic spirit and pioneering vision are not only his legacy, but our future.
We will honor Ray by keeping his vision alive and the Company on course.”_

_Ray’s story is now legend: the 1994 “spear in the chest” epiphany he 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.  Seventeen
years and a sea change later, Ray estimated that Interface is more than half-way
towards the vision of “Mission Zero,” the journey no one would have imagined for
the company, or for the petroleum-intensive industry of carpet manufacturing, which
has been forever changed by his vision.  _

_Ray chronicled the Interface journey in two books, Mid-Course Correction (1998)
andConfessions Of A Radical Industrialist (2009).  The latter was recently released
in paperback as Business Lessons from a Radical Industrialist._

_An honors graduate of Georgia Institute of Technology’s school of industrial and
systems engineering in 1956, Ray remained an ardent supporter of the school, which
awarded him with an honorary doctorate of philosophy at last Friday’s summer commencement.
Together, he and Interface funded the creation of the Anderson-Interface Chair in
Natural Systems at Georgia Tech, where Associate Professor Valerie Thomas conducts
research in sustainability._

_Anderson founded Interface in 1973 to produce the first free-lay carpet tiles in
America. Interface would revolutionize the commercial floorcovering business, but
it is for that legendary environmental epiphany in 1994 that Ray will best be remembered._

_**Really About Ray ****Anderson 1934 – 2011**_

_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.  Seventeen
years and a sea change later, Ray estimated that Interface is more than half-way
towards the vision of “Mission Zero,” the journey no one would have imagined for
the company or for the petroleum-intensive industry of carpet manufacturing, which
has been forever changed by Ray’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 chronicled that journey
in two books, Mid-Course Correction (1998) and Confessions Of A Radical Industrialist(
2009).  The latter was recently released in paperback as Business Lessons from a
Radical Industrialist._

_An honors graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology’s (Georgia Tech) school
of industrial and systems engineering in 1956, 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, Interface is the world’s largest producer of modular 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.”  **Seventeen years
later, the company has made significant progress towards that vision, reducing greenhouse
gas emissions by 35 percent, fossil fuel consumption by 60 percent (favoring renewable
forms of energy), waste to landfill by 82 percent, and water use by 82 percent. 
During that same period, Interface has avoided over $450 million in costs, increased
sales by 63 percent and more than doubled earnings._

_The once captain of industry eschewed a luxury car for a Prius and built an off-
the-grid home and became an unlikely screen hero in the 2004 Canadian documentary,“
The Corporation,” in the 2007 film by Leonardo DiCaprio, “The 11^(th) Hour,” and
in Tom Shadyac’s 2011 documentary, “I AM.”  The Interface story is also the focus
of the documentary film “So Right, So Smart.” Ray 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 was a sought after speaker and advisor on all eco-issues, including
a stint as co-chair of the President’s Council on [Sustainable](https://greenlivingguy.com/2022/04/cloud-computing-saves-energy-5-ways-its-green/)
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 100 day action plan on climate.  Together, he and Interface funded the creation
of the Anderson-Interface Chair in Natural Systems at Georgia Tech, where Associate
Professor Valerie Thomas conducts research in sustainability._

_Ray was lauded by government, environmental, and business groups alike.  In 2010,
he received a host of accolades, including: the American Society for Interior Designers(
ASID) Design for Humanity Award, a Lifetime Achievement Award from GreenLaw; the
inaugural Global Sustainability Prize from the University of Kentucky’s Tracy Farmer
Institute for Sustainability and the Environment; a River Guardian Award from the
Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper organization; a Sustainability Award from the Women’s
Network for a Sustainable Future (WNSF), the first time the WNSF has honored a businessman;
and a Pillars of EARTH Sustainable Leadership Awards given by EARTH University in
Costa Rica._

_In 2007, Ray was honored as a recipient of the Purpose Prize from Civic Ventures,
a think tank and an incubator, generating ideas and inventing programs to help society
achieve the greatest return on experience, and by Auburn University with its International
Quality of Life Award._

_In 1996, he received the Inaugural Millennium Award from Global Green, presented
by Mikhail Gorbachev, and won recognition from Forbes Magazine and Ernst & Young,
which named him Entrepreneur of the Year. In January, 2001, he received the George
and Cynthia Mitchell International Prize for Sustainable Development. He also has
been honored by the Georgia Conservancy, Southface Energy Institute, SAM-SPG (Switzerland),
the U.S. Green Building Council, the National Wildlife Federation, the Design Futures
Council, the Children’s Health and Environmental Coalition, the Harvard Business
School Alumni (Atlanta Chapter), the International Interior Design Association, 
the Southern Institute for Business & Professional Ethics, the Possible Woman Foundation
International, the World Business Academy, LaGrange College, and the Council of 
Scientific Society Presidents. _

_Interface has been named to CRO magazine’s (formerly Business Ethics magazine) 
100 Best Corporate Citizens List for three years. In 2006, Sustainablebusiness.com
named Interface to their SB20 list of Companies Changing the World, and in 2006 
GlobeScan listed Interface #1 in the world for corporate sustainability. _

_Ray was former Board Chair for The Georgia Conservancy and served on the boards
of the Ida [Cason](https://greenlivingguy.com/2017/11/the-plot-to-loot-americas-wilderness/)
Callaway Foundation, Rocky Mountain Institute, the David Suzuki Foundation, Emory
University Board of Ethics Advisory Council, the ASID Foundation, Worldwatch Institute,
and the Arizona State University Global Institute of Sustainability Advisory Board.
He was on the Advisory Boards of the Harvard Medical School Center for Health and
the Global Environment and the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper.  He was awarded 
12 honorary doctorates from Northland College (public service), LaGrange College(
business), N.C. State University (humane letters), University of Southern Maine (
humane letters), The University of the South (civil law), and Colby College (law),
Kendall College (art), Emory University (science), Central College in Pella, Iowa,(
humane letters), Chapman University (humane letters), Clarkson University (science),
and the Georgia Institute of Technology (philosophy)._