Product Description

In 1991, Chelsea Green published Beyond the Limits, the revision and updating of The Limits of Growth by Dennis and Donella Meadows, and Jorgen Randers. Their book helped greatly to popularize the phrase "sustainable living." Over time at Chelsea Green, our publishing program has sought new and delightful ways to apply the principles of sustainable living. This effort has seen new books published on subjects as diverse as flower farming and building houses from straw bales.
For the most part, however, sustainable living is not a valued concept in the business community, where "growth" is narrowly defined as synonymous with money, and is considered by many to be the sole indicator of success. This is the world in which Ray Anderson was reared. After graduating as an industrial engineer from Georgia Tech, where he also played on the football team, he followed a traditional and successful business path, until in 1973 he was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug and founded Interface, Inc., a carpet manufacturing company.
Over the next two decades, Interface grew and prospered, a success by most traditional business indicators of growth-revenues, profits, products, and territories. Ray Anderson, however, found himself growing increasingly uneasy, a discomfort that became focused when he read Paul Hawken's book The Ecology of Commerce. It became instantly clear to him that the processes of nature must be incorporated into every aspect of his life, including his company.
Mid-Course Correction is the personal story of Ray Anderson's realization that businesses need to embrace principles of sustainability, and of his efforts, often frustrating, to apply these principles within a billion dollar corporation that is still measured by the standard scorecards of the business world. While the path has proved to have many curves, Interface is demonstrating that the principles of sustainability and financial success can co-exist within a business, and can lead to a new prosperity that includes human dividends as well.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10855 in Books
• Published on: 1999-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 204 pages

About the Author
Ray Anderson has become one of the nation's leading spokespersons and advocates for sustainability. He is currently co-chairman of the President's Council on Sustainable Development, and was named the Georgia Conservancy's Conservationist of the Year in 1997. His warm and eye-opening account of the mid-course correction for himself and his company should be required reading for every CEO in the world. Anderson lives with his wife, Pat, in Atlanta. He has two children and five grandchildren.

Customer Reviews

A visionary and transformational company
This is the personal and eco-spiritual journey of Ray Anderson - the CEO of Interface, Inc., the world's largest producer of floor coverings. The book chronicals Ray Anderson's mid-life "change of heart" concerning the negative impact his business was having on the eco-systems of earth. Moved by this new awareness, Anderson sets off on an intensive study of the topic (much of which he writes about here) and sets the audacious goal of transforming his company into the first truly sustainable enterprise (which is a work in-progess of course).

Admittedly, much of what Mr. Anderson writes here is an amalgam of the writings of the major environmental proponents of the 80's & 90's, but told in a personalized way as it relates to Interface's carpeting business. He forms a framework and rationale of why sustainable business is essential and gives many useful stories of how Interface struggled to define and achieve continuous improvement in the quest for sustainability - a journey Anderson likens to "climbing Mt. Everest."

Some highlights I found useful include:
+ A vision of prototypical sustainable company of the 21st century
+ The case how technology must move from being part of the problem to being part of the solution to non-sustainability
+ Interface's seven-front plan for achieving sustainability (nice color charts)
+ A great example of how Interface is moving from selling consumable products to be discarded (floorcovering) to providing an ongoing service (replaceable floorcovering that is taken back and recycled using zero-waste, solar-energy processes).

While this book is now 10 years old, it is still relevant and useful - although some concepts are dated (eg: solar is now economically realizable in many places but not written as such). For readers who like books that tell a story, there should be much inspiration here in the author's memoirs. And for those who look for the "how-to" lists, there is a wonderful, comprehensive list of 200-some practices a company can implement to achieve greater sustainability. Those with responsibily to implement sustainable practices should find these highly practical actions invaluable (worth buying the book just for this).

In any societal movement, true visionaries are needed to set the bar and define ultimate goals. Interface is one such organization. However, no organization, business or community is anywhere near being truly sustainable so far. Interface is no where near it, and their recyclable carpet "leasing" program has not quite been a big success - so far - as they miscalculated some customer behaviors needed to change. But it is better than it was years ago which is the basic journey towards truly sustainable products and operations.

Mid-Course Correction: Towards a Sustainable Enterprise: The Interfase Model
Let us stop talking about the environment and the need to protect it and start DOING SOMETHING, ANYTHING to achieve a better path towards a more SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY AND WAY OF LIFE! THE TIME IS NOW! I do hope its not too late.
Anselmo De Portu, Environmental Planner

Inspiring
I would highly recommend this book for those of you who are convinced big business will eventually destroy our earth.

I was impressed that a non-scientist/engineer would even attempt to write a book like this. His excitement about the potential for saving the environment came through in his text. He laid out the goals his company had set for achieving a state beyond zero waste, returning to the earth as much as was taken from it. I believe it takes a visionary to apply such abstract ideas and commit to making them real. And the fact that he was able to make a business arguement for sustainable development was reassuring because, realistically, if businesses can be convinced that this will help them make money, it is much more likely to happen. That's clearly what I saw with the pollution prevention movement and it just might happen here.