In this TED talk, Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface Global, describes the business logic of sustainability. The data he presents would sway any CEO or business owner to get on board for sustainability in the business sector. Since realizing the err of their ways and making the right changes, Interface Global has saved 70,000 tons of used carpet from landfills, created innovative systems used to recycle carpet, lowered costs by 400 million dollars, recreated their products so they are the best they’ve ever been, aided in having employees that are rallied around the products as well as the cause, became a leader in the marketplace and increased sales by 160 percent.
You see, while individual members of the business community may completely agree with being more (or totally) sustainable, as a whole, most businesses are concerned with cost and profits. Instead of letting them know how much good they will be doing for the earth and generations to come, it’s a lot easier, as Ray Anderson demonstrates, to sway them with numbers. Specifically, lower costs and higher profits.
As a side note, Interface Global is halfway to their goal of having a carbon footprint of ZERO, which they hope to have completed by 2020. Also be sure to check out one of their side projects, Mission Zero, a community where people can meet like-minded individuals and share innovative ideas and valuable resources, all with the mission of reducing our environmental impact.
Wonderful presentation. I need to watch it again since the kids were making too much noise through parts of it. Thanks for posting it. I search TED for speakers for my own conference (which you'll be speaking at in a couple of weeks) but I haven't seen Ray Anderson before.
ReplyDeleteIsn't TED amazing??
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