Earth's supplies are inexhaustible;
substitutes are always available;
there is an inexhaustible sink into which to dump pollutants;
Earth was made for man;
"Any thinking person
must act"
The eco-odyssey of a CEO
by Wanda Ballentine
The keynote speech by CEO Ray Anderson at the University of Oregon's Second Annual Sustainable Business Symposium November 13 was an extraordinary and inspiring tale -- in his words, "the eco-odyssey of a CEO." It was accorded a much-deserved standing ovation.
Anderson is founder of Interface, the biggest commercial carpet company in the world, worth $1.3 billion, but in his soft Georgia drawl he gave as comprehensive an overview of the ecological crises facing us as the most knowledgeable environmentalist. Chronicling the litany of devastation, Anderson charged: "Any thinking person must act." More than that, he said, "the largest, most pervasive, most wealthy, most influential, most powerful institution on Earth must lead the charge -- and it happens to be the one doing the most damage: Business." Anderson quoted former Senator Tim Wirth: "The economy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the environment," and called for a second industrial revolution, one that will reverse the damage of the first.
Congenial and down-to-earth, Anderson was not always an environmentalist. He founded his company in 1973, noting that, "For the first 21 years, I never gave one thought -- not one -- to what we were taking from the Earth or doing to the Earth." His epiphany occurred in August of 1994, when customers had started asking what Interface was doing for the environment, and he had no good answers. Then Paul Hawken's landmark book, The Ecology of Commerce fell into his hands. Hawken called the environmental devastation from industrial practices the "death of birth." Said Anderson, "It was a spear through my heart," He realized that despite his company's enormous success, it was a total failure in this arena. Anderson rolled up his sleeves, called a worldwide managers' meeting, and began to inventory what they were doing and develop strategies of change.
Anderson's reaction is remarkable. Most CEOs, when faced with the evidence of industrial malfeasance, respond with immediate denial for which they cast around for corporate scientists to support. Anderson was 60; he could have simply rested on his laurels. But he got the message and began to develop a vision for his "child [business] and his children," a vision for the business of the 21st century, and he aims not only for sustainability but for restoration.
Not only is the environment in deep trouble, observed Anderson, but so is half the human population. "In a funeral march to the grave ... we are wasting both human and ecological capital while we focus only on financial capital ... We are destroying in a few hundred years what took billions of years to create." There have been two huge die-offs from unknown toxic events, he noted: 260 million years ago something killed off 96% of earth's species; 65 million years ago, the dinosaurs went. Now we are heading for a third, and it's "a deliberate act by the species with the highest intelligence yet to evolve."
As Anderson's Georgia-based Interface, Inc. is the world's largest producer of commercial carpet, with more than 25 factories in 10 countries producing 40% of the world's carpet tiles, he can not be easily dismissed by the business community, and he challenged them: "my charge is to disturb you ... to further sensitize you to what I believe is the crisis of our times. If what I say seems radical and provocative, then I hope you will be provoked."
Waving an article by Donella Meadows on systems change,1 Anderson said the most essential change required is a change in the mind-set behind the industrial system, a mind-set that still believes:
"This is dead wrong," said Anderson. "View our finiteness from space ... We need a 'lobal' change." Environmental degradation has destroyed 9,000 square miles of the U.S., he asserted. "We wouldn't stand to let an enemy do that to our land, yet we do it ourselves."
Anderson's vision of business in the 21st century is largely based on The Natural Step,2 the Swedish-based program for sustainability introduced to the U.S. by Paul Hawken. Anderson sits on the board of The Natural Step, as well as on the President's Council on Sustainability. A Natural Step workshop was part of the Sustainable Business Symposium, and at least three others have been held in Oregon this past year in conjunction with the NorthWest Earth Institute in Portland.3
Anderson exhorted the audience to think in geological time and to seek fundamental changes in technology. He advocated for emphasizing the right side of the brain as much as the left, balancing logic with nurturing and intuition, looking at the interactions of different aspects of the whole rather than dissecting out the parts. He lauded the rise of women in business and government as a means to foster this emphasis.
"The market is downright dishonest and will do anything to make a profit," he warned. "Cigarette and oil prices do not begin to cover the costs of the damage they do, particularly when you throw in an occasional Gulf War." In another example, Anderson called the debate about global warming political, while the scientific debate is about details, not major facts. As Kyoto made only a small dent in what needs to be done, he said, scientists are working on an adaptation plan, "an adaptation to destruction."
Anderson aims to create a prototype for 21st century business, "doing well by doing good," eliminating waste, moving to solar energy, and supporting communities and employees. Interface no longer sells carpet tiles, it leases them; the company retains ownership and liability, and when lessees are through with them, takes them back to recycle into new products.
The innovations Interface began making in 1994 were difficult, but have resulted in tremendous financial gain. They scrapped smokestacks; use no new oil in producing carpets, and have greatly increased recycling. It has achieved a 45% reduction in waste at a savings of $77 million. Landfill waste is down 60-80%, but there's still $80 million to cut, said Anderson. The company is committed to zero emissions, and scrubbers pose a big problem. Toxics accumulate in them, and "there is no 'away'" to which they can be consigned. The Law of Thermodynamics insures that those substances will disperse. Observed Anderson, it's "not just a good idea; it's the law."
Resource efficiency in transportation is the most difficult problem, being the least within their control. They can't cut contacts with customers and suppliers, but do work to educate them and share their vision. The company aims to sequester one tree per 4,000 miles traveled and is working with Amory Lovins, America's leading energy efficiency expert to find solutions. Said Anderson, "We're getting ready for the day oil will be truly priced, and then we will 'kick butt' by being way ahead of our competitors."
The "new" industrial revolution Anderson envisions must switch from technology that is extractive, wasteful, linear, fossil-fuel driven, abusive, and focused on labor productivity, to one that is renewable, cyclical, based on solar/hydrogen energy, benign, emulates nature, and focuses on resource productivity. Such technology will reconcile technophiles and technophobes, environmentalists and business, he prophesied. The new definition of happiness will be the quality of life.
Anderson's book on his conversion, principles, and vision is being released this month: Mid-Course Correction. Toward a Sustainable Enterprise: The Interface Model. Publisher: Chelsea Green, 1-800-639-4099.
1 "Places to Intervene in A System [in increasing order of effectiveness]," by Donella Meadows. Whole Earth, Winter, 1997.
2 The Natural Step US, P.O. Box 29372, San Francisco, CA 94129-0372; 415-561-3344; fax 415-561-3345; tns@naturalstep.org; www.emis.com/tns.
3 NorthWest Earth Institute, 921 SW Morrison, Ste. 532, Portland, OR 97205; 503-227-2807; fax 503-227-2917; nwei@teleport.com
©Wanda Ballentine, 1998