“11/16/2009, 11:22am EST”
Interview with Ray C. Anderson, of Interface Inc. (via scfoj)
Anderson: At Interface, the business case for sustainability has manifested itself in four key ways:
- Costs are down, not up, dispelling the myth that sustainability is expensive. Our first initiative, a zero-tolerance waste initiative, has netted us over $400 million in saved or avoided costs, more than paying for any capital intensive or R&D costs associated with sustainability.
- Products are the best they’ve ever been. Sustainability is a well-spring of innovation, and our product designers have been particularly successful using biomimicry (the study of nature’s design principles) as a guide.
- Our people are galvanized around our mission, owing to a sense of higher purpose and self-actualization that comes when you focus on something bigger than yourself. Academics and experts who have studied the cultural transformation at Interface say they’ve never seen the type of top-to-bottom and bottom-to-top alignment that sustainability has helped foster at Interface.
- The goodwill of the marketplace is tremendous, winning business for Interface because customers want to be aligned with a company that is trying to do the right thing by our environment. No amount of marketing, no clever ad campaign could create the kind of customer loyalty that we have experienced. It makes sense, given that the whole journey began for us when our customers started asking, “What is Interface doing the for the environment?”
Becoming more sustainable is in the best interests of every individual and every organization on the planet. Any individual or organization that works against sustainability is an enemy of all. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but the reality of our situation now is quite a bit harsher indeed, and it will get far worse without radical shifts in perspective and lifestyle.
First step: go vegan. Going vegan 1 day a week does more to achieve greater sustainability than going local 7 days a week. Imagine the increased sustainability of going vegan all the time — not to mention all the other benefits. Look for vegan resources in the sidebar —>
Never leave home without it.
