In memoriam: Ray Anderson, Interface founder & CEO

Ray Anderson, the founder and chairman of Interface, 77, died Aug. 8 at his home in Atlanta. He had liver cancer. He was often called the “greenest CEO in America” for his crusade to turn his billion-dollar carpet company into an environmentally sustainable enterprise.

Mr. Anderson was the founder of Interface, the largest producer of commercial carpet tiles, fabric and upholstery for commercial environments. For 20 years, he ran the business in compliance with government regulations but never thought much about the environment.

Then, in 1994, he read Paul Hawken’s book, The Ecology of Commerce, which gave him a new understanding of how business practices could damage the environment.

“It was like a spear in the chest,” he said in many public speaking engagements. He followed, “I was convicted as a plunderer of the Earth.”
From that point forward, Mr. Anderson preached environmentalism with the conviction of a convert. He pursued what he called “Mission Zero”: to make Interface fully sustainable by 2020 through the use of recycled materials and renewable energy sources.

“It’s not often that you have a corporate CEO who is as committed to environmental issues or more than those of us in the environmental movement itself,” said Lester Brown, president of the Washington-based Earth Policy Institute. “I don’t think any other corporation has come close to doing what he has done.”
Mr. Anderson founded his Georgia-based carpet business in 1973. He had seen modular carpet in England and thought that the concept would appeal to practical Americans. Easy to install, the tiles could be replaced one at a time as they wore out. They also suited the modern American office, with its shifting cubicles and proliferating wires and cords to accommodate.

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 hds eschewed a luxury car for a Prius and built an off-the-grid home, authored a book chronicling his journey, 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.

Anderson has been lauded by government, environmental, and business groups alike. 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.