A Spear in the Chest interview with Sustainable Industrialist Ray C. Anderson

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. Fourteen years and a sea change later, Interface, Inc., is approximately 40 percent 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. The once captain of industry has eschewed a luxury car for a Prius and built an off-the-grid home, authored a book chronicling his journey, and become an unlikely screen hero in the 2004 Canadian documentary, “The Corporation.” He 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.