Richard Ha writes:

I read a fascinating article in the New York Times recently. It was about Ray Anderson, CEO of the carpet tile company Interface, based in Georgia.

Back in 1994, he had what he calls his “conversion experience.” He was asked to speak to his sales force on the company’s approach to the environment. He says he thought, “That’s simple. We comply with the law.” But that wasn’t enough to speak about.

From the article:

So he started reading about environmental issues, and thinking about them, until pretty soon it hit him: “I was running a company that was plundering the earth,” he realized. “I thought, ‘Damn, some day people like me will be put in jail!’ ”

…He challenged his colleagues to set a deadline for Interface to become a “restorative enterprise,” a sustainable operation that takes nothing out of the earth that cannot be recycled or quickly regenerated, and that does no harm to the biosphere.

Our experiences are similar to Anderson’s. Sustainability pays; it doesn’t only cost. We had people ask us, “What does it mean when you are first in the world and no one pays you more for what you do?” Well, it’s turned out that now we have higher margins and the added benefit that our people are happy to work for a company that stands for something.

We’re doing the same sort of thing as Ray Anderson, and for the same reasons. I liked the end of his article where he gave a talk and heard whispers, “Has he gone round the bend?”

He says he confessed immediately: “That’s my job. To see around the bend.”