Ray Anderson and Climate Neutral Carpet
Climate Neutral Carpet, by Ray Anderson
Ray C. Anderson (July 28, 1934 – August 8, 2011)was founder and chairman of Interface Inc., one of the world’s largest manufacturers of modular carpet for commercial and residential applications and a leading producer of commercial broadloom and commercial fabrics. (source: wikipedia)
Mr. Anderson understood the issue with sustainability and the role business and industry plays. He reframed the problem of consumption and affluence to a problem of happiness. Perhaps there is a way to be happy to take from the earth only what can be renewed by the earth? He conceded that Interface was as a plunderer of the earth. But, did not leave it there. He conceded that by digging up the earth and converting natural resources to products for a profit, he himself was a plunderer. However, he discovered that through transformative technologies and unique supplier relationships his company’s product could be created from materials of the earth in a sustainable way. He called it ‘cool’ carpet. According to Environmental Leader article dated August, 2011, “Interface says that in the past 17 years, it has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 24 percent, fossil fuel consumption by 60 percent, waste to landfill by 82 percent and water use by 82 percent, while avoiding over $450 million in costs, increasing sales by 63 percent and more than doubling earnings.” That is some kind of cool.
How did they do it? They started by using less oil, using less energy overall and less material. They made products last longer and recycled old carpet into new. They worked deals with nylon suppliers to get pre- and post-consumer recycled content materials– including a 100% recycled content fiber by sending fiber from reclaimed carpet.
We could all stand to learn from Ray Anderson, an inspirational entrepreneur and environmental visionary and businessman. Cool indeed.
Emily Riley: Innovation Practitioner
Kinds of Innovation
Danny Hillis from Applied Minds speaks about the kinds of innovation: 1) Research, 2) Systems, and 3) Society.
Innovation occurs in research where new things are developed out of which systems can be built. For example, in government research labs (e.g. DoD) where deep knowledge of specific areas is known and cultivated. What may be lacking is knowledge of systems application or meeting the needs of customers (in the case of a government DoD lab, the warfighter). The second tier of innovation which he addresses is systems innovation. Putting building blocks together into a system and/or product technology. It is interesting to note what is key in accomplishing this: knowledge of people. I think this is where collaborative innovation or open innovation structures play a significant role. He brings up the apple story of the i-gadgets and the company’s ability to connect with many technology pieces and parts to build a system. This required not only an understanding of how people behave and the problems of the customer but how to connect with building block providers, suppliers in a way that revolutionized a market. The third level is society. He notes, “we change technology, but then technology changes us.” This kind of innovation is happening everywhere, but he comments that this happens more often outside of the US.
Emily Riley: Innovation Practitioner
National Innovation TRIZCON 2010 Oct. 7-8th coming up soon!
I am working with colleagues from Cincinnati Ohio to co-host and co-sponsor the National Innovation TRIZCON 2010 event this October in Dayton, OH. The event traditionally is held to expose and train people interested in Altshuller’s theory of inventive problem solving (acronym: TRIZ or TIPS). This year is different. The event will couple an additional track on innovation with speakers who will be covering topics such as front-end problem deconstruction, innovation end-to-end approaches, methods, tools, innovation culture and leadership, etc. I am very excited to be working to bring methods of practice into the fold of the innovation discussion. I think this event will be a great chance for small-medium sized business leaders of Dayton and Cincinnati to immerse themselves into the best-in-class thinkers on innovation, build networks, and learn practical approaches for implementation.
The event will be held on Oct. 7-8th at the Hope Hotel near Wright Patterson Air Force Base and Wright State University. Stay tuned for details real soon on getting registered, the agenda filled with top creative problem solvers, innovation strategists, practitioners, and thought leaders from NASA, AFRL, P&G, and many more.
Emily Riley: Innovation Practitioner
