In a 2006 interview, Ray Anderson, founder and Chairman of Interface, the world’s largest manufacturer of modular carpet, recounted the personal epiphany in 1994 that ultimately led to his company’s vision to become “the first company that by its deeds shows the entire industrial world what sustainability is in all its dimensions.”  Below are a few excerpts from that interview and a question from me: 

We’d begun to hear this question from customers that we’d never heard before, in so many words, “What’s your company doing for the environment?” for which we had no answer…

I was not an environmentalist.  I had never given a thought to what we were taking from the earth or doing to the earth to make our products…  But I was attuned to my customers, and when I found a subject they were interested in, I got interested…

When I found Hawken’s book [The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken], it was a spear in the chest experience; and I read it and wept because it laid out so clearly the problems of the industrial system, the system of which my company, my creation, this third child of mine was an integral part…

Step by step we began to get traction and move up that mountain [“Mount Sustainability”]…

And the goodwill in the marketplace is just astounding.  Those same people that were asking that question 11, 12 years ago—“What’s the company doing?”—have embraced the company for what we are doing…

It’s turning out to be a better way to make a bigger profit…

Today I would say that pioneering this new way of doing business is the ultimate purpose of Interface.  It goes beyond the bottom line to a purpose, a higher purpose, that all can subscribe to, be part of, be motivated by and be challenged by.

So what is your organization’s purpose “that all can subscribe to, be part of, be motivated by and be challenged by?” 

Do you have one?  A real one?  (Not just some nice-sounding words for your walls, web-site, and employee handbook…)  If not, why not?

You don’t have to be the first one up Mount Sustainability, but don’t you want to play a bigger game?  And win bigger, too?

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You can view the entire interview with Ray Anderson at: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2769291606811106137.

Check out the company at www.interfaceglobal.com. 

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*In a completely subjective and idiosyncratic way, this blog will recognize people whose thoughts and/or actions reflect a “small boat ethic” as described in earlier posts.