Terra Infirma - Environmental and Sustainability Consultants

News & Views From the Front Line

Tuesday, 6 April 2010

Book Review: Confessions of a Radical Industrialist by Ray Anderson

This book seemed to take an age to get published in the UK, and I had it on pre-order as soon as I knew it was coming as, in terms of green business leadership, Ray Anderson is the Guv'nor. His company, Interface, is the least likely champion of green business that you could imagine - they are the world's biggest manufacturer of carpet tiles, made from oil-based chemicals using huge amounts of energy and producing tonnes of toxic waste - if they can do it, anyone can.

Anderson first wrote a book, Mid-Course Correction, in 1998 describing his decision to turn Interface into a sustainable company back in 1994 and this book, he says, is an update of that journey from the point of view of ten years later. The title of the first book comes from Anderson's epiphany on a flight reading Paul Hawken's The Ecology of Commerce. He had been given the book after struggling with the question "What is Interface doing about the environment?".

The answer was the radical Mission Zero - the like of which I have seen nowhere else - to have a zero ecological footprint by 2020. Yes, zero. In order to achieve this, Interface developed the idea of "Mount Sustainability" which has seven faces - all of which have to be climbed:

1. Zero waste
2. Eliminating emissions and effluent
3. Renewable energy
4. Recycled or renewable materials
5. Making transport resource efficient
6. Sensitizing stakeholders
7. Redesigning commerce

There are too many examples of how they have progressed on these faces to list here, but here are a couple of my favourites:

• turning the perceived cost of installing solar energy in one factory - enough to cover the whole supply chain's carbon emissions - into a business opportunity. The result: a new product, Solar-Made carpet, which has won huge public sector contracts.
• developing a new carpet fixing tape, inspired by the tiny hairs that allow geckos' feet to cling to any surface, to eliminate the need for glue and make the carpet easier to recover.
• using landfill gas to heat one of their factories and cut methane emissions
• the "entropy" carpet tile, again inspired by nature - this time leaves on a forest floor, which can be laid in any direction.

Interface isn't afraid to fail either. Their much talked about "Evergreen" carpet leasing service (part of face 7) was a marketplace failure - mainly because their customer's financial systems and the US tax system couldn't cope with carpet being a revenue item rather than a capital item.

If I have to criticise anything about the book, it is that the writing itself is a bit clunky in places and threads sometimes get lost. For example, in the chapter "One small digression and six lessons" I could only count two lessons, and the biographical nature of the first few chapters suddenly disappears until the end, giving a slightly uneven tone. A very minor criticism, but a bit more polish would make the message so much more compelling.

But in summary, Interface is my No 1 green business and this book goes a long way to explaining how Anderson and his team did it - so, buy it, read it, buy a copy for your colleagues!

Labels: book review, green business, interface, ray anderson

# posted by Gareth Kane : 07:00 0 Comments

Monday, 23 November 2009

Interface's socially sustainable product

I had a great interview with Nigel Stansfield of Interface on Friday. I met Nigel in 2002 on Schumacher College's now sadly defunct Business & Sustainability course*, but I didn't realise at the time that he had been given two year's (nearly) complete freedom to explore and understand sustainability. Nigel's role is Senior Director of new product development - covering both incremental improvements to existing products and big step changes in product/service concepts. Note that the word sustainability doesn't feature in his job title - it is a core role of everyone at Interface.

Interface's commitment to sustainability is astonishing - they have the corporate goal of a zero footprint by 2020. They have recently started to get stuck into the social side, developing a new product made from sustainable materials in India where all the actors in the supply chain are assured a fair price - it would be a FairTrade product if FairTrade had a protocol for floor coverings - it really is that cutting edge. The video below describes it better than I ever could!

* I am developing plans for a similar intensive residential course for senior sustainability practitioners, but with an emphasis on sharing experience rather than being lectured by a guru - if you would be interested in such a thing, get in touch and let me know what you would like out of it.

Labels: corporate social responsibility, fairtrade, interface

# posted by Gareth Kane : 07:00 0 Comments

Friday, 20 November 2009

Interface interface?

I’m back on the train again, this time to Halifax to interview Nigel Stansfield of Interface for The Green Executive. Interface is definitely one of the greenest companies on the planet – and it is the biggest producer of modular carpet in the world. The company's Chairman Ray Anderson is truly a green business pioneer and has written several books on the subject. I saw him speak a few years ago and he was inspirational. He's on my list as a future entry on Green Gurus.

It's been a busy week. I signed off the final proofs of The Three Secrets of Green Business (gulp!) and had to do four press interviews yesterday as Newcastle upon Tyne was declared to be the most sustainable city in the UK by Forum for the Future - when I've got my political hat on, I'm second in command of all things sustainable for the Council. A good day with some excellent press coverage. On top of that I'm scoping out new business opportunities for one client, developing another project around rural sustainability and working on The Green Executive. The new baby is invading my favoured 6am slot for this - normally the house is silent, but now I have to, sometimes literally, muck in with the little'un.

It's all great fun!

Labels: green executive, interface, terra infirma

# posted by Gareth Kane : 10:52 0 Comments

Friday, 12 June 2009

Ray Anderson, Interface

Interface is one of the world's leaders in green business in the rather unsexy field of carpet - they also happen to be the biggest producer of modular carpet in the world. CEO Ray Anderson is not the greatest public speaker in the world, but his message is compelling.

Labels: interface, ray anderson, ted

# posted by Gareth Kane : 07:00 1 Comments

By Gareth Kane

A highly accessible, practical guide to those who want to introduce sustainability into their business or organization quickly and effectively.

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