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Reflections on the Transformation of His Company As It Assumes Leadership in Industrial Ecology Worldwide

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Reflections on the Transformation of His Company As It Assumes Leadership in Industrial Ecology Worldwide From the Founding Editor EDITORIAL ne of the great issues of our time is whether or not we can create a sus- Otainable environment. In this issue, we are pleased to present some important and highly relevant points of view, data, and opinions on this critical topic. From an editor’s point of view what is exciting is that we have Deliveredbeen able to by represent Ingenta all to of the SoL con- stituencies in this issue—academics, consultants,Society and practitioners. for Organizational The mix works.Learning We have advocates, skeptics, scientists, commentators,IP: 209.6.165.251 and philosophers. The short classics give us a bit of a sense of history about this issue.Date: And 2011..12..29..18..55.. Peter Senge’s statement gives us a sense of the future. It has been a pleasure to work on such a critical theme in putting the issue together, and we hope that our readers will find it stimulating, educational, and useful. Please write us and tell us your reactions. Ed Schein In This Issue Karen Ayas and Edgar H. Schein e are delighted to present this very special issue on sustainability. The trend of con- Wsuming ever-increasing amounts of resources cannot continue: we humans can 1 choose to see and understand the consequences of our actions as individuals, institutions, and societies. We offer a rich selection of classics, features, and more that brings in the diverse voices of practitioners, consultants, and researchers, all committed to creating a sustainable future. Classics include excerpts from Rachel Carson’s The Silent Spring, Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac, and a poem by Walt Whitman. Features We begin with Ray Anderson’s talk at the 1999 SoL Annual Meeting. Anderson, founder and CEO of Interface, shares his personal reflections on the transformation of his company as it assumes leadership in industrial ecology worldwide. For Anderson, who has also helped to form the SoL Sustainability Consortium, the aim is not just to become sustain- able but to become restorative. Hilary Bradbury introduces The Natural Step, a sustainability framework that has been developed in Sweden by Karl-Henrik Robèrt, and seeks to illustrate how it applies to the US context. She asserts the need for attention to competencies of emotional intel- ligence along with frameworks (such as The Natural Step or Interface’s QUEST) condu- cive to technological breakthroughs and offers some practical guidelines. REFLECTIONS , Volume 1, Number 4 N I E Next is the story, told by Marlow Hotchkiss, Colleen Kelley, Robert Ott, and John H C S Elter, of a revolutionary product (97% recyclable!) developed at Xerox. With no part that D N ends in the landfill, it is one of the most successful projects in the history of Xerox. Peter A S Senge, who comments on the story, shares his experience with the LAKES team when A Y A Xerox hosted the SoL Sustainability Consortium. We continue with John Ehrenfeld who offers powerful ways of thinking about sustainability by inquiring into multiple definitions. He reminds us of Fromm’s two pos- e u s s sible modes of existence and the necessity for a radical shift from the “having” paradigm I s i that dominates the industrial era to “being.” Joe Laur and Sara Schley, in their com- h T n ments, point out that the radical shift is not just about eco-efficiency but who we are “in- I dividually, organizationally, and globally.” Jane Pratt, from The Mountain Institute, though appreciative of Ehrenfeld’s theoretical analysis, laments that no practical or op- erational guidanceDelivered is offered. by Ingenta As the author to responds, we witness how powerful and re- warding suchSociety a dialogue for can Organizational be. Learning Next is theIP: historic209.6.165.251 speech by Sir John Browne, CEO of BP Amoco, delivered at Stanford UniversityDate: in2011..12..29..18..55.. May 1997. His first-time call to all industry oil giants suggests that they rethink corporate responsibilities in global warming. As Stephen Schneider puts it in his insightful comment, Browne “breaks the industry code of silence” with this speech. Bernie Bulkin, a vice president from BP, comments further on what this has meant for BP and shares a few of the initiatives that began in his company and industry after the speech. Paul Hawken, in an interview, offsets this positive tone and affirms that companies are still not at the stage where they see ecological problems as part of their core busi- ness and that sustainability as both scientific and social issue is still poorly understood. Pille Bunnell and Nicholas Sonntag propose that since we have become more aware of “leaving footprints,” we can all choose to act as humans, with compassion, kindness, and humility, as we live our daily lives. Humberto Maturana comments further, remind- ing us that we are “loving” beings. Dispersed throughout, we also have some shorter pieces to embellish and enrich the issue. Sara Schley and Joe Laur describe the evolution of the SoL Sustainability Consor- tium and give us an update of projects and progress. Pete Myers and Michael Lerner urge us to put public health and safety ahead of commercial interests, especially when deal- ing with toxic chemicals. Donella Meadows echoes the voices of diverse experts who have sent warning messages. We close the issue with a wonderful summary from SoL chair, Peter Senge. 2 Volume 1, Number 4, REFLECTIONS FEATURE Climbing Mount Sustainability Ray Anderson Ray Anderson gives more than 100 speeches a year, almost all of them about the environ- ment. For the past three years, he has been the co-chair of the President’s Council on Sus- tainable Development. He has challenged the company he founded and which he serves as CEO, Interface, to be a leader in “inventing the next industrial revolution because the present one is not sustainable.” It is fair to say that he is one of the best-known and re- spected corporate advocates for environmental responsibility. In addressing the 1999 SoL Annual Meeting, I asked Ray to not give another speech. I figured he could use the break, and, in keeping with the dialogic tone of this meeting, we would all benefit from his personal reflections on what the journey of the past five years has been all about.—Peter M. Senge ’ll start with a story that’s been going around on the Internet, so you may already know I it. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson went on a camping trip. Night came and they Ray Anderson settled in and went to sleep. In the middle of the night, Sherlock Holmes woke up and CEO punched Watson to wake up. When Watson roused himself, Holmes said, “Watson, what Interface do you see?” W atson looked up and he said, “Well, meteorologically speaking, I see we’re in a high pressure zone; the sky is perfectly clear. Cosmologically speaking, I see an ex- panded universe with billions and billions of galaxies, each with billions and billions of stars. Astronomically speaking, I see our own galaxy, the Milky Way. Astrologically speaking, I see that Mars is in Capricorn and Saturn is in Sagittarius. Chronologically speaking, I deduce that it’s 3:15 am. What do you see, Holmes?” Holmes hesitates a moment and says, “Watson, you idiot, someone has stolen our tent.” Hang on to that punch line, because I’ll come back to it to drive home a very important point. 6 It would be a good idea to start with my beginnings because I think that’s part of the story. I’m from a small town in Georgia—West Point—on the banks of the Chattahoochee River. I grew up with a ball in one hand and a book in the other. What- ever sport was in season, I just played—football, basketball, baseball, softball. And I loved my books and studies and did well in school. But it was football that earned me a scholarship to Georgia Tech in 1952, and I graduated in 1956 with a degree in industrial engineering. I spent the next 17 years climbing the corporate ladder, working for three companies along the way. In 1973, when I was 38 years old and had two children, ages 16 and 12, I left a perfectly good job with a wonderful company to found my own com- pany that came to be called Interface. It was a company created from absolute scratch. Just an idea, an idea that carpet tiles or modular carpets were better ways to cover the floors. The office of the future was just coming into its own in the early seventies. Elec- trical wiring was going in the floor, and the furniture was open-planned, systems furni- © 2000 by the Society for Orga- ture. The office of the future needed carpet tiles. Incidentally, the carpet on this floor is nizational Learning and the Interface carpet tiles. I would call that a synchronistic happening. They date from 1985. Massachusetts Institute of They look like crap but are very durable. Technology. Some remarks are based on R. Anderson, Mid- So, in 1973, I cut the corporate umbilical cord. It was a terrifically frightening expe- Course Correction (Atlanta, GA: rience to take that step off the cliff, not knowing whether my feet would come down on Chelsea-Green, 1998). solid ground or thin air. I managed to acquire the financial backing, raise the equity capi- Volume 1, Number 4, REFLECTIONS N tal, arrange the bank debt, acquire a site, build a factory, equip a factory, begin to build O S R an organization, eventually launch a sales and marketing effort into the worst recession E D N since 1929, and survive.
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