Ray C. Anderson
(1934-2011)

American Founder of Interface, Inc.
Environmentally Responsible Business Advocate

birthdate: July 28
birthplace:
West Point, Georgia

QUOTES

"The new course we're on at Interface ... is to pioneer the next Industrial Revolution: one that is kinder and gentler to the earth."

It's not just the right thing to do, it's the smart thing to do.

One of the biggest things that needs to change is the educational system. Universities are still teaching a system to students that destroys the biosphere.

The way we've all been doing business is completely environmentally unsustainable -- not to mention just wrong. If we continue this way, we'll all be committing suicide. We have to change from the extracting, wasteful, abusive system of the first Industrial Revolution to the waste-free and benign Second Industrial Revolution.

Business and industry should be leading it [the Second Industrial Revolution] because if they don't, we're all doomed. You can't have an economy that destroys the basic infrastructure. We need to stop destroying the biosphere

I'm most frustrated by those who just don't "get it." Those who deny the overwhelming scientific evidence regarding global warming; those who think that we can continue on the same path we've been traveling since the first industrial revolution. I'm equally perturbed by "green wash," the practice of using the environment or any other social issue purely for economic or personal gain.

When you are being asked to make the business case for sustainability - perhaps ask them to make the business case for being un-sustainable.

There are noble fortunes to be made in the transition to sustainability.

 

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