Ray Anderson (entrepreneur)
Encyclopedia
Ray C. Anderson was founder and chairman of Interface Inc.
, one of the world's largest manufacturers
of modular carpet for commercial and residential applications and a leading producer of commercial broadloom and commercial fabrics. He was "known in environmental
circles for his advanced and progressive
stance on industrial ecology and sustainability."1Anderson died on August 8, 2011 after a 20-month battle with cancer.
in the school of industrial and systems engineering in 1956. He learned the carpet trade through more than 14 years at various positions at Deering, Milliken & Company and Callaway Mills.
Anderson founded Interface in 1973 to produce the first free-lay carpet tiles in America. Interface one of the world’s largest producer of modular commercial floorcoverings, with sales in 110 countries and manufacturing facilities on four continents.
, seeking inspiration for a speech to an internal task force on the company’s environmental vision. Hawken argues that the industrial system
is destroying the planet and only industry leaders are powerful enough to stop it.
In 2009, Anderson estimated that Interface was more than half-way towards the vision of “Mission Zero,” 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.
Anderson chronicled the Mission Zero journey in two books, Mid-Course Correction: Toward a Sustainable Enterprise: The Interface Model (1998) and Confessions of a Radical Industrialist: Profits, People, Purpose: Doing Business by Respecting the Earth (2009). The latter was released in paperback as Business Lessons from a Radical Industrialist in 2011.
(2007 Leonardo DiCaprio
film); I Am
(2011 Tom Shadyac
documentary); Big Ideas for a Small Planet
(Sundance Channel series) and others.
The Interface story is the focus of the documentary film “So Right, So Smart” (2009).
Ray served 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 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 Anderson received a host of accolades throughout his life, including:
Under Anderson’s leadership, Interface was 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.
Anderson was former Board Chair for The Georgia Conservancy and served on the boards of the Ida Cason 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).
Interface Inc.
Interface, Inc. , founded in 1973 and beginning operations in LaGrange, Georgia, claims to be the world's largest manufacturer of modular carpet for commercial and residential applications. It also sells commercial broadloom carpets. In 2008, it sold its commercial upholstery fabrics division and...
, one of the world's largest manufacturers
Manufacturing
Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...
of modular carpet for commercial and residential applications and a leading producer of commercial broadloom and commercial fabrics. He was "known in environmental
Environmental movement
The environmental movement, a term that includes the conservation and green politics, is a diverse scientific, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues....
circles for his advanced and progressive
Progressivism
Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...
stance on industrial ecology and sustainability."1Anderson died on August 8, 2011 after a 20-month battle with cancer.
Life and career
Anderson was an honors graduate of the Georgia Institute of TechnologyGeorgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States...
in the school of industrial and systems engineering in 1956. He learned the carpet trade through more than 14 years at various positions at Deering, Milliken & Company and Callaway Mills.
Anderson founded Interface in 1973 to produce the first free-lay carpet tiles in America. Interface one of the world’s largest producer of modular commercial floorcoverings, with sales in 110 countries and manufacturing facilities on four continents.
Environmental focus
Anderson first turned his focus toward the environment in 1994 when he read The Ecology of Commerce by Paul HawkenPaul Hawken
Paul Hawken is an environmentalist, entrepreneur, and author.-Life:Paul Hawken had a Swedish grandmother and a Scottish grandfather with a farm. His father worked at UC Berkeley...
, seeking inspiration for a speech to an internal task force on the company’s environmental vision. Hawken argues that the industrial system
Industrialisation
Industrialization is the process of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial one...
is destroying the planet and only industry leaders are powerful enough to stop it.
In 2009, Anderson estimated that Interface was more than half-way towards the vision of “Mission Zero,” 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.
Anderson chronicled the Mission Zero journey in two books, Mid-Course Correction: Toward a Sustainable Enterprise: The Interface Model (1998) and Confessions of a Radical Industrialist: Profits, People, Purpose: Doing Business by Respecting the Earth (2009). The latter was released in paperback as Business Lessons from a Radical Industrialist in 2011.
Recognition and awards
Anderson was featured several documentaries and films, such as The Corporation, (2004 Canadian documentary); The 11th HourThe 11th Hour (film)
The 11th Hour is a 2007 documentary film, created, produced and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, on the state of the natural environment. It was directed by Leila Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners and financed by Adam Lewis and Pierre André Senizergues, and distributed by Warner Independent...
(2007 Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor and film producer. He has received many awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Aviator , and has been nominated by the Academy Awards, Screen Actors Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television...
film); I Am
I Am (2011 film)
I Am is a 2011 documentary film written, narrated, and directed by Tom Shadyac. The documentary explores Shadyac's personal journey after a 2007 bicycle accident, "the nature of humanity" and "world's ever-growing addiction to materialism." The film, shot with Shadyac and a team of four, contrasts...
(2011 Tom Shadyac
Tom Shadyac
Thomas Peter "Tom" Shadyac is an American comedian, director, screenwriter, and producer. Shadyac, who was the youngest joke-writer ever for comedian Bob Hope, is widely known for writing and directing the films Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Nutty Professor, Liar Liar, Bruce Almighty, and the...
documentary); Big Ideas for a Small Planet
Big Ideas for a Small Planet
Big Ideas for a Small Planet is an American documentary series on the Sundance Channel which focuses on environmental innovations such as alternative fuel and green building techniques. The series premiered on the iTunes Store prior to its release on the Sundance Channel on April 17, 2007...
(Sundance Channel series) and others.
The Interface story is the focus of the documentary film “So Right, So Smart” (2009).
Ray served 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 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
Sustainability
Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...
.
Ray Anderson received a host of accolades throughout his life, including:
- In 2007, he was named one of TimeTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
’s Heroes of the Environment. - Inaugural Millennium Award from Global Green, presented by Mikhail Gorbachev (1996)
- Recognized by Forbes Magazine and Ernst & ErnstErnst & YoungErnst & Young is one of the largest professional services networks in the world and one of the "Big Four" accountancy firms, along with Deloitte, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers ....
, which named him Entrepreneur of the Year in 1996. - The American Society of Interior DesignersAmerican Society of Interior DesignersThe American Society of Interior Designers is the oldest and largest professional association for interior designers. Through education, knowledge sharing, advocacy, community building and outreach, the Society strives to advance the interior design profession and, in the process, to demonstrate...
Design for Humanity Award (2010) - Lifetime Achievement Award from GreenLaw (2010)
- The inaugural Global Sustainability Prize from the University of KentuckyUniversity of KentuckyThe University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...
Tracy Farmer Institute for Sustainability and the Environment (2010) - River Guardian Award from the Upper Chattahoochee RiverkeeperUpper Chattahoochee RiverkeeperThe Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper is an environmental advocacy organization with more than 5,000 members dedicated solely to protecting and restoring the Chattahoochee River Basin, specifically between the Buford Dam and West Point Lake...
(2010) - Sustainability Award from the Women’s Network for a Sustainable Future (WNSF), the first time the WNSF has honored a businessman (2010)
- Pillars of EARTH Sustainable Leadership Awards given by EARTH UniversityEARTH UniversityEARTH University, located in Guácimo, Limón & EARTH University – La Flor, located in Guanacaste, Costa Rica is a private, international, non-profit university which offers an undergraduate program leading to a licenciatura degree in agricultural sciences and the rational use of natural...
in Costa Rica (2010) - Purpose Prize from Civic Ventures (2007)
- Auburn UniversityAuburn UniversityAuburn University is a public university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 25,000 students and 1,200 faculty members, it is one of the largest universities in the state. Auburn was chartered on February 7, 1856, as the East Alabama Male College, a private liberal arts...
’s International Quality of Life Award (2007) - George and Cynthia Mitchell International Prize for Sustainable Development (2001)
Under Anderson’s leadership, Interface was 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.
Anderson was former Board Chair for The Georgia Conservancy and served on the boards of the Ida Cason 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).
External links
- Ray Anderson Interview
- The Sustainable Industrialist: Ray Anderson of Interface
- On Responsibility in the Private Sector, keynote speech by Ray Anderson at Rethinking Development (GNH2) in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, June 22, 2005.
- Visionary Leader of the Month: Ray Anderson
- Sustainable Growth - Interface, Inc., Fast Company, Issue 14 April 1998
- Interface Puts More Distance Between Manufacturing and the Well Head (PDF)
- Ray Anderson on the business logic of sustainability. The talk on TED 2009.
- So Right So Smart Documentary featuring Ray Anderson and the story of Interface
- Sustainability in Action Bioneers 2008 Plenary (Video)