"A Magnate’s Green Epiphany"

"Ray C. Anderson, a leading green business advocate and founder of Interface, one of the world’s largest carpet manufacturers, died this week. He’d spent the last 17 years promoting the benefits of sustainable business practices, not only for protecting the environment but for boosting the bottom line."



"His “epiphany” came in 1994, when he read Paul Hawken’s “Ecology of Commerce.” He documented his transformation from plunderer to protector in his book “Mid-Course Correction: Toward a Sustainable Enterprise,” which is now required reading in every green M.B.A. program.

Mr. Anderson wasn’t the first to embrace green business practices like waste reduction, biodegradability and recycling, but he was the first to apply them in a large-scale industrial company, according to L. Hunter Lovins, president of Natural Capitalism Solutions, a sustainable business consulting group."

Jim Witkin reports for the New York Times' Green blog August 11, 2011.

Source: Green (NYT), 08/12/2011