Ray Anderson passed away this week after a two-year battle with
cancer, but his legacy in helping to transform the corporate sector
will live on for generations.

Much will be written about Ray’s early 1990’s ‘spear in the
chest epiphany’ when, on reading Paul Hawken’s book The Ecology of
Commerce, he realized he was by Hawken’s definition “a plunderer of
the Earth.”

Not only did that realization change his life, it prompted him
to transform his highly successful floor covering company into a
model of sustainability that stands even to this day as a leader of
corporate responsibility.

He became something of a missionary, making thousands of
speeches and writing two books that would change corporate
attitudes about the role of business in society.

He was one of the earliest inspirational speakers at the GLOBE
Series of events showing that sustainability is the key to
success.

Speaking to delegates at the Globe 2002 Conference in Vancouver
he said, “The industrial paradigm is shifting, and early movers win
big.”

Anderson told the delegates his company has reduced hydrocarbon
use over seven years by emulating nature, where there is no waste,
in the production process, saving $185 million. “Doing well by
doing good is paying off with customers,” he said, “And recycled
content sells.”

It was a message he continued to pass along in his many public
appearances and which became the mantra that would shape his
company’s world-wide operations.

Late last year he announced that as part of a “href=”http://www.missionzero.org”
target=”_blank”>Mission Zero” commitment by Interface Inc. to
eliminate negative environmental impacts by 2020, he pledged to
obtain third-party validated environmental product declarations
(EPDs) on all its products globally by 2012.

Anderson’s 2010 book Confessions of a Radical Industrialist: Profits,
People, Purpose - Doing Business by Respecting the Earth contained many insights for corporate leaders seeking success by
turning sustainability into a successful business strategy.

Quoted in an interview about the book, Anderson noted, “Green
for the sake of green may not cut it. In fact, there’s another way
to think about that: The brownest product there is is the greenest
product that doesn’t work. Not only is it not working, but also
it’s giving green a bad name.”

This was the type of insight that made Interface Inc the winner
of the target=”_blank”>2006 GLOBE Environmental Excellence Award for
Corporate Competitiveness, presented at GLOBE 2006 in
Vancouver.

Ray Anderson’s life and legacy lies at the core of what drives
the GLOBE Group’s various efforts to demonstrate that you can do
well by doing good. To use Ray Anderson’s own words,

“This we know: openness, honesty,
and collaboration are key to environmental progress - not only for
Interface but for any business. We are calling on our fellow
industrialists everywhere to make the same commitment to
transparency and to the business model: ‘doing well by doing good,’
a better way to a bigger, more honest and authentic profit.”

Ray was an inspirational leader and friend to many in the
sustainability world. I had the privilege of following him as a
speaker on a podium in Australia some years ago. It was a daunting
task but Ray’s smile and his encouragement allowed me to carry it
off. Such was the man, positive and encouraging to all that met
him.

Thank you Ray, we shall miss you, but won’t forget you.

John D. Wiebe

President and CEO