Turning Point (Ray Anderson)

Resurgence 242 Article

A story of an eco-epiphany.

IMAGINE THAT YOU are sixty years old. The company you founded when you were thirty-eight is now twenty-one plus years old. Amazingly it survived start-up from absolute scratch – a greenfield start-up from just an idea for a new product. You remember vividly that day in your start-up year, in the teeth of a recession, when your factory had been built and equipped, your initial workforce hired and trained, raw materials bought and paid for, products developed … and there was not a single order on the books. You learned that day, indelibly, the value of the customer – the source of the next order, the next heartbeat, without which everything would be lost.

Ray Anderson is founder and chairman of Atlanta-based Interface Inc and author of Mid-Course Correction: The Interface Model. www.interfacesustainability.com