concerns about a sustainable company
revolve around money will it cost too
much will it affect profits interface
and its founder ray anderson are proof
that success will come to those who go
green hi I’m Rebecca Brayton and welcome
to watchmojo.com and today we’re
speaking with Anderson to learn more
about how a business can go green as
well as how his green shift has affected
the way he lives his life I know that
the company has done well financially
after this shift but was there an
initial kind of outpouring of funds to
undertake this shift from the day one we
were ahead of the cost curve because of
the waste elimination method and the
waste elimination today inside Kim with
available four hundred million dollars
and that has more than offset everything
that we spent sustainability has been
self funding for us I noticed one
principle that you keep asking yourself
is how would nature do this our head of
design read biomimicry book by janine
venice and biomimicry means nature’s
teacher nature as inspiration nature’s
mentor nature as measure how would
nature do this so you read this book and
then he sent his design team into the
forest and said go and see how nature
would design a floor covering well they
spent a day in the forest can you
believe it looking at the ground looking
at the forest floor the stream beds it
finally dawned on them you know there’s
no two things alike here it’s total
chaos so they came back to the design
studio that is not a carpet tile a
modular carpet such that such that the
face designs of no two tiles are
identical they’re all similar they all
look like they belong together but
everyone is actually different from
every other one and in a year and a half
we went to the top of the bestseller
list faster than any other product ever
had in the company’s history and then I
heard of us a speaker that begins every
speech by having her audience close
their eyes and in your mind’s eye
picture your ideal comforts on that
place of peace and then she says now how
many of you were somewhere outdoors
and nearly every hand I’ve done it a nap
probably 500 times around the world the
same exercise and nearly every hand goes
up it’s amazing how how we humans
gravitate to nature I know that some
companies like you mentioned interface
consults on this type of thing some
corporations have come to you for help
such as Walmart and we Scott this is one
of the most important things has
happened in the industrial world I know
Mike Duke now the CEO at walmart the
family was a number two man when we
decided to launch this effort with his
top 25 people i think it was mike called
me and asked me would I come out and
that helped and then he made the most
remarkable statement himself he said to
his people said you don’t know it but I
police got the CEO of the largest
corporation on earth spend ninety
percent of my time a reputation of
issues it’s about whether the public the
general public will continue to give us
some license to operate and without that
we’re toast so when Walmart when Lee
Scott says here’s where we’re going and
60,000 CEOs hear that that is that that
sends a ripple through the industrial
world the likes of which we have not
seen before how has your shift to green
affected your life personally i gave up
jaguar for prius and never look back i
love my mama third previous now my wife
and I moved from a 3600 square foot
condominium to a 2400 square foot
condominium we did build a house though
vacation home off the grid meaning
photovoltaics for electricity and solar
collectors on the roof for heat oh well
in a septic system man and we’re ready
for a nuclear war we bought 86 acres
there in North Carolina we put 79 of the
86 acres into a forever wild
conservation easement to protect it from
ever being developed thank you very much
you’re very welcome sir pleasure to be
with you
revolve around money will it cost too
much will it affect profits interface
and its founder ray anderson are proof
that success will come to those who go
green hi I’m Rebecca Brayton and welcome
to watchmojo.com and today we’re
speaking with Anderson to learn more
about how a business can go green as
well as how his green shift has affected
the way he lives his life I know that
the company has done well financially
after this shift but was there an
initial kind of outpouring of funds to
undertake this shift from the day one we
were ahead of the cost curve because of
the waste elimination method and the
waste elimination today inside Kim with
available four hundred million dollars
and that has more than offset everything
that we spent sustainability has been
self funding for us I noticed one
principle that you keep asking yourself
is how would nature do this our head of
design read biomimicry book by janine
venice and biomimicry means nature’s
teacher nature as inspiration nature’s
mentor nature as measure how would
nature do this so you read this book and
then he sent his design team into the
forest and said go and see how nature
would design a floor covering well they
spent a day in the forest can you
believe it looking at the ground looking
at the forest floor the stream beds it
finally dawned on them you know there’s
no two things alike here it’s total
chaos so they came back to the design
studio that is not a carpet tile a
modular carpet such that such that the
face designs of no two tiles are
identical they’re all similar they all
look like they belong together but
everyone is actually different from
every other one and in a year and a half
we went to the top of the bestseller
list faster than any other product ever
had in the company’s history and then I
heard of us a speaker that begins every
speech by having her audience close
their eyes and in your mind’s eye
picture your ideal comforts on that
place of peace and then she says now how
many of you were somewhere outdoors
and nearly every hand I’ve done it a nap
probably 500 times around the world the
same exercise and nearly every hand goes
up it’s amazing how how we humans
gravitate to nature I know that some
companies like you mentioned interface
consults on this type of thing some
corporations have come to you for help
such as Walmart and we Scott this is one
of the most important things has
happened in the industrial world I know
Mike Duke now the CEO at walmart the
family was a number two man when we
decided to launch this effort with his
top 25 people i think it was mike called
me and asked me would I come out and
that helped and then he made the most
remarkable statement himself he said to
his people said you don’t know it but I
police got the CEO of the largest
corporation on earth spend ninety
percent of my time a reputation of
issues it’s about whether the public the
general public will continue to give us
some license to operate and without that
we’re toast so when Walmart when Lee
Scott says here’s where we’re going and
60,000 CEOs hear that that is that that
sends a ripple through the industrial
world the likes of which we have not
seen before how has your shift to green
affected your life personally i gave up
jaguar for prius and never look back i
love my mama third previous now my wife
and I moved from a 3600 square foot
condominium to a 2400 square foot
condominium we did build a house though
vacation home off the grid meaning
photovoltaics for electricity and solar
collectors on the roof for heat oh well
in a septic system man and we’re ready
for a nuclear war we bought 86 acres
there in North Carolina we put 79 of the
86 acres into a forever wild
conservation easement to protect it from
ever being developed thank you very much
you’re very welcome sir pleasure to be
with you
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