"The Awakening of a Corporation: A Personal Journey"

by Joyce LaValle, Senior Vice President of Organizational Development & Communication, Interface Americas

There is a saying that out of the mouths of babes we hear the truth. That is a lesson I learned first hand and was able to turn into both a personal and a corporate awakening.

Almost 20 years ago when my daughter Melissa was barely a teenager, she approached me with a challenge that transformed the way I see the world around me. It was an ordinary day as I returned from the grocery store, hands loaded down with plastic bags full of goods. Melissa criticized me for choosing plastic bags as opposed to the old-fashioned brown paper bags. I explained to her that these bags are simply more convenient and easier to carry and thereby a dramatic improvement. Actually, Melissa pointed out, what we perceive as a short-term convenience could have disastrous long-term ramifications for our planet. Many people would have just shrugged this off as a know-it-all teen trying to show up her parent. However, it really got me thinking and wanting to know more.

Years later, Melissa was in graduate school when the issue came up again. Not surprisingly, she chose to study solid waste management and was involved in a project studying landfill content. I worked then, as I still do, in the carpet industry, an industry largely to blame for our shrinking landfill space, Melissa told me. My daughter gave me a book that she hoped would open my eyes; it was Paul Hawken's Ecology of Commerce. Looking back, this wasn't just an eye opener, it was a deeper, practically spiritual awakening for me. I knew I had to transform my personal knowledge into a quest for my company as a whole.

Interface is typical of many large manufacturing organizations. For years, we didn't consider the impact we had on the environment. We complied with regulations but didn't see the need to take efforts any further than what was required. But as a global movement toward environmental sensitivity started, some of our customers and business associates starting asking questions. What is Interface doing? What are your short and long-range goals related to your environmental impact? We really didn't have any answers. Our company Chairman, Ray Anderson, had been asked to speak to a group representing all our business units around the world, but he was scratching his head over what to say. Out of pure serendipity, that was about the same time I read Hawken's powerful book.

I made sure Ray got a copy of Ecology of Commerce. I must admit I was somewhat tentative. What if he didn't see it the way I did? Would he think I was passing judgment on the company that supported me? But was I ever wrong! Ray had perhaps an even stronger reaction than I did; he says it was a spear in the chest. Today, he calls reading that book his epiphany, and our company has never been the same.

The book helped Ray to understand the dilemma our planet faced, and enabled him to pass on what would become a powerful company vision to all those who worked for Interface. The premise of the book is that business and industry, the largest, wealthiest, most powerful, most pervasive institution on Earth, and the one doing the most damage, must take the lead in directing Earth away from the route it is on toward the abyss of man-made collapse. Ray's enthusiasm surprised many people, but we all started to believe his cry that someone had to take the lead, and why shouldn't it be us?

Today, Interface acts upon core principles outlined by Ray that we call the Seven Steps to Sustainability. The premise behind our mission toward sustainability, one that is a continual process, is that we will take nothing from the Earth and return nothing harmful to the Earth. It recognizes that all components of our company are connected: people, products, processes, capital, customers, suppliers, communities, the Earth and its Biosphere. Everything we do must keep in mind how all these elements are connected.

The Seven Steps to Sustainability encompass everything from reducing waste, to finding renewable sources of energy to power our factories, to sensitizing everyone we come in contact with, from our own employees to our suppliers, customers and business partners. The mission may have grown out of one person's vision, but it takes everyone involved to make it happen. Our company culture supports innovation at all levels, and some of our most rewarding efforts have come from completely unexpected sources. We are fortunate that our company family worldwide has embraced the mission because without complete buy in, it would be a failure.

Our mission toward sustainability is ambitious and humbling, and it's a goal that won't be accomplished over night. We know there's so much more we could be doing. But again, we keep going back to that simple concept somebody has to take the first step, why not us? The power of one person or one company to facilitate change is remarkable, we have learned. And all along we have maintained the philosophy of doing well by doing good. In the end, were running a business that must be financially sound and accountable to our stakeholders around the globe. The combination of environmental responsibility and economic progress can coexist in a business if the business allows itself to function within a new way of thinking. These concepts are not difficult to understand, they merely took a spark of enlightenment, based on the innocent thinking of a child, to create an awakening.

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