Interface Looking after Tomorrow’s Child
We have a choice to make during our brief brief visit to this beautiful green and blue living planet – to hurt it or to help it.
Ray Anderson, Founder of Interface, 2009
I watched the below presentation from Ray Anderson on www.ted.com a couple of days ago and it was an unexpected inspiration. From the above quote you may think that Ray Anderson is an environmentalist. And perhaps he is, but he is also the Founder of the worlds’ largest carpet tile manufacturer Interface Inc.
In 1995 Ray came to the realisation that business and industry were the largest contributors to the decline in the environment as well as the only hope to save it. He set out on a mission of sustainability – to provide an inhabitable planet for Tomorrow’s Child. To achieve this, Interface set the goal to transform their petroleum intensive business to have zero impact on the environment by 2020. In the last 14 years the company has made impressive progress by minimising waste, using renewable materials and renewable energy, recycling their used products, and introducing efficiencies into their processes. As a result of this transformation Interface’s greenhouse gas emissions have decreased by 90% in 14 years.
At the same time Interface’s growth has increased and its profits have doubled. Ray believes that their mission for sustainability has been an incredible marketplace differentiator, securing the goodwill of customers in a way that no marketing or advertising ever could. The mission has also generated a stronger team focused on a shared higher purpose.
Ray Anderson and Interface have taken the lead. They have proven that business and industry can be sustainable and profitable – even more than that, that it can be a better business model. Now that we know this, now that we know it is possible, is it not our duty to follow and make the same transformations in the businesses we work in?
Glenn Thomas, one of Interface’s employees wrote the below poem entitled Tomorrow’s Child, inspired by Interface’s mission of sustainability:
Tomorrow’s Child (Written by Glenn Thomas)
Without a name, an unseen face
and knowing not your time nor place
Tomorrow’s Child, though yet unborn,
I met you first last Tuesday morn.A wise friend introduced us two,
and through his sobering point of view
I saw a day that you would see,
a day for you, but not for me.Knowing you has changed my thinking,
for I never had an inkling
That perhaps the things I do
might someday, somehow, threaten you.Tomorrow’s Child, my daughter-son
I’m afraid I’ve just begun
To think of you and of your good,
Though always having known I should.Begin I will to weigh the cost
of what I squander, what is lost
If ever I forget that you
will someday come to live here too.
Watch the below TED Talk video clip of Ray Anderson’s presentation. In my view it is essential viewing for anyone in business or industry who cares about the legacy they leave on our world. It is 16 minutes long.
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Comments
Hi Glenn
I’m very sorry to hear this news. Our thoughts will be with him. Please let me know if there is anything more I can do.
It is an honor to have you comment on my blog – your poem is inspiring. Thank you to you and Ray for making a difference and showing us the way.
Brendon
[...] Interface – a petroleum intensive flooring manufacturer well on their way to having zero impact on the environment by 2020 (see my post Interface Looking after Tomorrow’s Child) [...]