Confessions of a Radical Industrialist in bookstores now
Ray Anderson on how his billion dollar company found new purpose, boosted profits and energized its people and customers
09.14.2009 – "People thought I'd 'gone 'round the bend' when I brought carpet tile technology to the U.S. market in 1973. I think it's safe to say that's done pretty well for us. Going around the bend is sometimes the very essence of leadership. Someone has to see what is out there. Some said I'd gone around the bend again in 1994 when I challenged our company to find a better way to a bigger profit, for us and for the earth. They thought it was a radical notion coming from an industrial engineer, but now we know it's an idea whose time is now." -- Ray Anderson on entrepreneurship, radical thinking, and sustainability
(September 15, 2009) Fifteen years ago, Ray Anderson had an epiphany that changed his life and the course of his billion dollar company, carpet tile manufacturer Interface, Inc. Prodded by a question from customers, the then-CEO went looking for inspiration for a speech to a task for on the environment, and found instead a “spear in the chest” at the realization that he – and the entire industrial world – had it all wrong.
CONFESSIONS OF A RADICAL INDUSTRIALIST (St. Martin’s Press, 2009) is a new book that tells the Interface story, and makes a case for a new business model for sustainability; a model that views people, profit, purpose and the planet in a singular perspective. It’s an unlikely story from an unlikely person – a captain of industry who, at the top of his game and at the age of 60, was inspired to challenge his worldwide workforce to find “a better way to a bigger profit.”
Ray’s challenge to his own associates has taken the carpet company on a journey that no one would have imagined for it, and for the petroleum-intensive business of carpet manufacturing, which has been forever by Ray’s vision. As much a “why to” as a “how to,” Confessions of a Radical Industrialist chronicles the company’s climb up “Mount Sustainability” and reveals how the journey has sparked innovation, energized employees, boosted profits and created goodwill in the marketplace.
The Interface story is a compelling one: In 1994, making carpets was a toxic, petroleum-based process, releasing immense amounts of air and water pollution and creating tons of waste. Fifteen years after Ray’s “spear in the chest” revelation, Interface has:
*Cut greenhouse gas emissions by 82%
*Cut fossil fuel consumption by 60%
*Cut waste by 66%
*Cut water use by 75%
*Invented and patented new machines, materials, and manufacturing processes
*Increased sales by 66%, doubled earnings, and raised profit margins
With practical ideas and measurable outcomes that every business can use, Anderson shows that profit and sustainability are not mutually exclusive; businesses can improve their bottom lines and do right by the earth.
About the Author
RAY ANDERSON was named one of Time magazine’s Heroes of the Environment and one of MSNBC.com’s Top 15 Green Business Leaders in 2007. He and Interface have been featured in three documentary films, including “The Corporation” and “So Right, So Smart.” He co-chaired the President’s Council on Sustainable Development and the Presidential Climate Action Project. He and Interface have been featured in The New York Times, Fortune, Fast Company, and many other publications.
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- News Facts
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- CONFESSIONS has a lighter publishing footprint than most books, with no dust jacket, paper from responsibly managed forests and earth friendly inks. It's also available as an ebook.
- Interface, Inc. is a billion dollar company based in Atlanta, Ga., with sales all over the world.
- Carpet tiles are 18” square tiles that are found mostly in offices, retail stores, hospitals, schools and homes.
- Ray’s epiphany came after he read, “The Ecology of Commerce” by Paul Hawken. The most arresting chapter title in that book? “The death of birth,” a chronicle of species extinction.
- Interface has shut down one third
of its smokestacks and 71 percent of its wastewater pipes, less pollution is an important by-product of smart manufacturing.
- Resource Links
- Interface, Inc. Website
- Mission Zero - an Interface sustainability community
- Ray Anderson's website
- St. Martin's Press Website
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