Ray Anderson (entrepreneur)
| Ray Anderson | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 28, 1934 |
| Died | August 8, 2011 (aged 77) |
| Known for | Founder and chairman of Interface Inc. |
Ray C. Anderson (July 28, 1934 – August 8, 2011) was founder and chairman of Interface Inc., one of the world's largest manufacturers of modular carpet for commercial and residential applications and a leading producer of commercial broadloom and commercial fabrics. He was "known in environmental circles for his advanced and progressive stance on industrial ecology and sustainability."1
Anderson died on August 8, 2011, twenty months after being diagnosed with cancer. On July 28, 2012, Anderson’s family re-launched the Ray C. Anderson Foundation. with a new purpose.
Originally created to fund Ray Anderson’s personal philanthropic giving, family members announced the rebirth and refocus of the Foundation on Anderson’s birthday, nearly one year after his 2011 death. The purpose of the Ray C. Anderson Foundation is to perpetuate shared values and continue the legacy that Anderson left behind. The Ray C. Anderson Foundation is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization whose mission is to promote and advance the concepts of sustainable production and consumption.
Anderson was an honors graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology in the school of industrial and systems engineering in 1956. He learned the carpet trade through more than 14 years at Deering, Milliken & Company and Callaway Mills.
Anderson founded Interface in 1973 to produce the first free-lay carpet tiles in America. Interface is one of the world’s largest producers of modular commercial floorcoverings, with sales in 110 countries and manufacturing facilities on four continents.
Anderson first turned his focus toward the environment in 1994 when he read The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken, and also Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, seeking inspiration for a speech to an internal task force on the company’s environmental vision. Hawken argues that the industrial system is destroying the planet and only industry leaders are powerful enough to stop it.
In 2009, Anderson estimated that Interface was more than halfway towards the vision of “Mission Zero,” the company’s promise to eliminate any negative impact it may have on the environment by the year 2020 through the redesign of processes and products, the pioneering of new technologies, and efforts to reduce or eliminate waste and harmful emissions while increasing the use of renewable materials and sources of energy.
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