Tributes to ‘inspiring’ boss who pioneered green manufacturing

Ray Anderson, the environmental champion who founded Interface, the world’s biggest manufacturer of modular carpet, has died aged 77 at his home in Atlanta, Georgia, in the US.

Mr Anderson, who helped to create 380 jobs at Interface’s base in Shelf, West Yorkshire, received many accolades for his work to stop business harming the environment, including the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Dan Hendrix, the president and chief executive of Interface, which also has its head office in Atlanta, said: “Interface and the world have lost a great man. Ray was and continues to be our company’s heart and soul. His iconic spirit and pioneering vision are not only his legacy, but our future. We will honour Ray by keeping his vision alive and the company on course.”

Mr Anderson’s reputation was built around what he later described as a “spear in the chest” moment. A graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology, Mr Anderson founded Interface in 1973 to produce the first free-lay carpet tiles in the US.

In 1994, after reading Paul Hawken’s book, The Ecology of Commerce, Mr Anderson realised that the “take, make, waste” cycle had to come to an end because it was harming the environment.

Seventeen years later, the company is approximately half way towards Mr Anderson’s goal of becoming a model of green manufacturing.

Shelf-based InterfaceFLOR is a key part of the company’s global empire.

InterfaceFlOR, whose customers include Yorkshire Water, Yorkshire Bank, Santander, HBOS and the University of Bradford, aims to become ‘greener’ by cutting its carbon footprint, and re-designing products to ensure that less material goes to landfill sites.

Steve Martin, the company’s manufacturing and operations director for the UK, said: “Ray will probably be seen as one of the most inspiring and visionary leaders of the late 20th century. He was living proof that you can have a heart and a brain.

“He always said that you haven’t done any favours if, in attempting to achieve sustainability, you damage the business.

“I was lucky enough to have known Ray since 1994. I went to many of his speaking events and I watched how he won sceptical people over. There was no ‘green-wash’ with Ray.

“He was charismatic and a natural leader and also a very thoughtful person. He often used to visit Shelf – he had a genuine interest in people and could communicate with people at all levels, including shop-floor workers. If he found out that somebody was doing something to help the environment outside work that would give him a buzz.

“He put a lot of investment into Shelf, which had never happened before.

“His legacy in Shelf is that sustainability is really embedded in the business. We are determined to hit the environmental targets that he set us, even though he won’t be around to see them achieved.

“He believed in doing well by doing good. He put the customer first. He would challenge his own business to do better. He was quite a humble chap who never claimed to know all the answers. It’s rare to come across people like this. He always said that, if you wash something down the drain, it affects something living thousands of miles away.

“He almost felt guilty about the way he had done business until the point when he realised the importance of sustainability.”

Earlier this year, InterfaceFLOR unveiled a new collection made from 100 per cent recycled yarn.

The carpet tile collection, called Biosfera I, is made from raw material such as reclaimed fishing nets and InterfaceFLOR’s own carpet tiles, using as little yarn as possible.

Currently, 40 per cent of InterfaceFLOR’s total raw materials are either recycled or bio-based, up from 0.5 per cent in 1996.

Spreading the word

ENTREPRENEUR Ray Anderson described his passion for environmentalism in two books – The Mid-Course Correction (1998) and Confessions Of A Radical Industrialist (2009).

Interface is the world’s largest manufacturer of modular carpet, which it markets under the InterfaceFLOR, FLOR, Heuga and Bentley Prince Street brands, and, through its Bentley Prince Street brand, it also has a leading position in the broadloom carpet market.

Mr Anderson and Interface funded the creation of the Anderson-Interface Chair in Natural Systems at Georgia Institute of Technology, where associate professor Valerie Thomas conducts research in sustainability.