ABSTRACT
Interface's Purpose, expressed so passionately by the company's founder, Ray Anderson, allowed the company to devise a Plan of great ambition. Ray Anderson, Interface's founder, was an industrial engineer who graduated from Georgia Tech. Interface's Purpose was and remains remarkable for its comprehensive and holistic quality. Interface operationalized its original Purpose with a Plan in 1995 when the company committed to a 25-year journey to the top of "Mount Sustainability," Ray Anderson's metaphor for creating a sustainable business. The Plan that Interface put in place to transform itself into a zero-impact enterprise has been difficult to deliver, but rewarding for the company and a catalyst in the broader societal debate on the role and future of business. Ray Anderson understood early on that he needed the knowledge and experience of others who had been thinking about sustainability for a long time.
