Sustainability Doesn't Cost, It Pays

Asked in 1994 to give a speech about the environment to the carpet tile company he founded, Ray Anderson -- finding his message of regulational compliance to be a bit dry -- did a bit of research on environmental issues.

... 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!’ ”

So instead of environmental regulation, he devoted his speech to his newfound vision of polluted air, overflowing landfills, depleted aquifers and used-up resources. Only one institution was powerful enough and pervasive enough to turn these problems around, he told his colleagues, and it was the institution that was causing them in the first place: “Business. Industry. People like us. Us!”

So began Anderson's environmental evangelism. His greatest lesson:

... sustainability “doesn’t cost, it pays” — in customer loyalty, employee spirit and hard cash. He says Interface sustainability efforts have saved the company more than $336 million since 1995.

Executive on a Mission: Saving the Planet [New York Times]