Mid-Course Correction: Toward a Sustainable Enterprise: The Interface Model [Paperback]

Ray Anderson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1999

Of value to business people, environmentalists, and educators alike, Mid-Course Correction is a business book about the enviornment that's written from a personal perspective. With passion and pride, Ray Anderson, Founder, Chairman and CEO of one of the world's largest interior furnishings companies, recounts his awakening to the importance of environmental issues and outlines the steps his petroleum-dependent company, Atlanta-based Interface, Inc., is taking in its quest to become a sustainable enterprise -- one that will never have to take another drop of oil from the Earth. Thought-provoking and thoughtful, Anderson's story is told from the heart.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ray C. Anderson is chairman and CEO of Interface, Inc., a company he founded that is the world's largest producer of commercial floorcoverings and other interior products. In recent years, Anderson has embarked on a mission to make Interface a sustainable corporation by leading a worldwide war on waste and pioneering the processes of sustainable development. The philosophy guiding Anderson's passion for this case is that it is not only the right thing to do, but the smart thing, too. In 1997, Anderson was appointed co-chair of the President's Council on Sustainable Development, which advises the White House on environmental policy. In 1996 he received the inaugural Millennium Award from Mikhail Gorbechev and Global Green, and was recognized by Ernst & Young as Enterpreneur of the Year for the Southeast Region. Interface, Inc., was named one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" in America by Fortune magazine in 1997 and 1998.

A graduate of the Georgia Instit! ute of Technology, Anderson lives with his wife, Pat, in Atlanta. He has two children and five grandchildren.

Product Details

• Paperback: 204 pages
• Publisher: Peregrinzilla Press (February 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964595354
• ISBN-13: 978-0964595354
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #714,259 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

The story is now legend; the "spear in the chest" epiphany Ray Anderson experienced when he first read Paul Hawken's, "The Ecology of Commerce" seeking inspiration for a speech to an Interface task force on the company's environmental vision. Fifteen years and a sea change later, Interface, Inc., is more than half way to it's target of "Mission Zero," the journey no one would have imagined for the company, or the petroleum-intensive industry of carpet manufacturing, which has been forever changed by Ray's vision. His Georgia-based company, Interface, Inc., was recently ranked number one in a GlobeScan survey of sustainability experts. The once captain of industry has eschewed his luxury car for a Prius and built an off-the-grid home, authored a 1998 book chronicling his epiphany, "Mid-Course Correction," and has a new book chronicling his journey, "Confessions of a Radical Industrialist," published by St. Martin's Press. He has become an unlikely screen hero in the 2004 Canadian documentary, "The Corporation" and was named one of TIME International's "Heroes of the Environment" in 2007. He's a sought after speaker and advisor on all issues eco, including a stint as co-chairman of the President's Council on Sustainable Development and as an architect of the Presidential Climate Action Plan, a 100 day action plan on climate that was presented to the Obama Administration.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 47 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Better Ecology Focus Brings More Profits and a Better World November 10, 2000

By Donald Mitchell HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

This book deserves more than five stars.

Mr. Anderson has taken an important step forward in leading Interface Corporation towards becoming ecologically neutral. By that phrase, ecologically neutral, I mean taking nothing from and adding nothing to the environment. This concept has become a popular one in Europe beginning in Sweden, in the form of The Natural Step, but has been much more slowly adopted in the United States. Those who are interested in understanding the processes by which a company can pursue improved environmental performance will find many helpful examples in Mid-Course Correction.

What if you don't care about your company's impact on the environment? Mr. Anderson makes a powerful argument based on his experiences at Interface that you should. First, it is much cheaper to produce goods and services if you use less materials and waste less. This means higher profits. Do you care about profits? Second, the pursuit of sustainability attracts many new customers and better supplier relationships. That also means higher profits. Third, people feel better about themselves. Do you like to feel better about yourself? Fourth, perhaps you should rethink your position about the environment. Even if we have enough for now, if we waste it, we are robbing our own descendents at some point of a good quality life. Mr. Anderson describes many cases of where despoilage of nature from overuse has been very expensive and undesirable by anyone's standard.

He also cites many of the leading books on the benefits of an ecologically sustainable business world. In fact, this movement will become a disruptive technology by making those who waste unable to compete with those who do not. Think about it.

To me, the value in the book is in Mr. Anderson's fine example of how to lead towards becoming environmentally sustainable as a company. I have been aware of most of the arguments in favor of this (including The Natural Step), but could not imagine how an American company would go about pursuing this goal. I also could not imagine how it could be reconciled with public ownership of stock. So much for my tiny imagination. Now, with Mr. Anderson's book, I can understand (and so can you) that becoming a sustainable enterprise is simply good business as well as being a good citizen. That will make sense to almost anyone.

After you read this wonderful book, I encourage you to share you copy with another person and ask them to do the same. This message needs to be spread if our companies are to fulfill their potential, and we are to have a world that we can all be proud of and enjoy living in. Then, I urge you to take this one step further, and think about how your family could become an ecologically sustainable unit.

Do good and do well!

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Completely depressing and totally exhilarating September 1, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

As an environmental management student I have become increasingly cynical and despairing of industry's token gestures toward the environment. How can the mounting pile of evidence about the collapse of earth's ecosystems be ignored and the plundering continue? I was alternately absolutely shattered and completely stunned reading this book, the facts are there and simply cannot be ignored any longer: If man ignores the earth then earth will ignore the man. Ray Anderson is a man who is not ignoring the earth and is using his corporate influence and his heart to make a difference. Anderson is a visionary, he knows it's not going to be easy but doesn't accept this as an excuse not to try. Where he leads he leaves a trail for others to follow and this gives me such hope for the future of our planet and tomorrow's child.

The book is written in a casual style, you're talking with Ray. It has a large font with double spacing so is completely readable. Read it then pass it on to everybody you know, then read it again.

Thank you Ray for waking up and making a difference, you're an inspiration to me.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful Transformation by Changing Minds October 12, 2000

By yo-tambien

Format:Paperback

Ray Anderson is the CEO of Interface Corporation, a manufacturer of carpet tiles for businesses and hotel chains. After reading Paul Hawken's The Ecology of Commerce and Daniel Quinn's Ishmael, Anderson revolutionized his beliefs and how his company does business. He is now striving for 100-percent sustainability by having zero waste, reusing materials, not using non-renewable resources, such as petroleum, and by leasing his carpet rather than selling it. Why this is important: 1) The obvious reasons such as not being wasteful and polluting, 2) Interface is now a model for all industry, 3) Anderson shows how sustainability is more profitable, and 4) Anderson's model shows that it only takes changing minds to be a successfully revolutionary--not street protests, letters to the editor, petitions, meditation, spiritual consciousness, believing in God, lobbying Congress, protesting governments and/or corporations, and all the typically tried and often painfully slow ways to enact positive change. Brilliant.