Interface is a Georgia based international manufacturer of carpet tiles. The corporation has gone from being a major draw on the planet’s resources and a major polluter to being nearly environmentally neutral.
And Interface is enormously profitable for their efforts.
Ray C. Anderson is Interface’s founder and author of the book, “Confessions of a Radical Industrialist.” He was the CEO of Interface in 1994 when he made the decision to pursue sustainability with a passion.
Anderson claims to be, “As profit-minded and competitive as anyone you’re likely to meet.” He pursued sustainability because he believes it is the right thing to do for the planet, the future, and for increasing shareholder value. I like this guy.
I have not finished reading Anderson’s book yet. I am only to page 68, yet I have not found any appeals to the government to solve his problems nor to force his competitors to handicap their businesses by following his example. Maybe that comes later in the book or perhaps it wasn’t included, but I doubt it. First of all, by page 68 he has boasted several times of the competitive advantages Interface has attained both from reducing costs and the public relations value with customers. Further, I don’t think he sees a government role in the environmental solution – nor do I. I believe what Anderson wrote on page 14 because it is so true. Anderson reports on the book he read in 1994 that led him down this path, “The Ecology of Commerce,” by Paul Hawken of the Smith and Hawken garden supply firm. “Not only was business and industry the principal instrument of global destruction, it was also the only institution large enough, wealthy enough, and pervasive and powerful enough to lead humankind out of the mess we were making. Not government. Government never seems to lead; it always seems to follow.”
Going green in the pursuit of green works. I’ll keep you posted on what I learn from the rest of the book.
Full disclosure; about once a month I lose a few dollars at poker to the neighbor and Interface employee that told me about the book. Thank you MB.
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From “GreenBiz.com”
Water Becomes the New Carbon
It has become eco-chic in recent years to declare that “water will be the oil of the 21st century” — an essential and limited resource, unevenly distributed around the world, the growing shortage of which will lead to economic power for water-rich nations and poverty for the rest, possibly even resource wars between the haves and have-nots.
Given that, how do water-dependent companies manage in a world where water quality and quantity become a constraint to doing business?
The question has remained largely theoretical, the basis of scenario and contingency planning for a handful of firms, with relatively few companies engaging in water strategy planning.
But as the effects of climate change materialize with greater frequency, companies from California to Calcutta are taking a deeper dive into water efficiency, measuring and managing its use and finding ways to close the loop, even setting goals to become “water neutral.”
In that regard, water is less the “new oil” than the new carbon.
Wouldn’t cap and trade as applied to sulfur dioxide be an example of how regulations helped industry to find a more environmentally sensible business model. Government can’t do the whole job, but sensible policies from regulators who aren’t in the back pocket of the industries they’re supposed to regulate can be helpful.