Ray Anderson Quotes

#1. There is no more strategic issue for a company, or any organization, than its ultimate purpose. For those who think business exists to make a profit, I suggest they think again. Business makes a profit to exist. Surely it must exist for some higher, nobler purpose than that.

Ray Anderson

#2. We have a choice to make during our brief visit to this beautiful blue and green living planet: to hurt it or to help it.

Ray Anderson

#3. For nearly 11 years, now, we have been on this mission; we call it, "climbing Mt. Sustainability", a mountain higher than Everest, to meet at that point at the top that symbolizes zero footprint-zero environmental impact. Sustainable: taking nothing, doing no harm.

Ray Anderson

#4. The new course we're on at Interface ... is to pioneer the next Industrial Revolution: one that is kinder and gentler to the earth.

Ray Anderson

#5. "Comply" is not a vision.

Ray Anderson

#6. I always make the business case for sustainability. It's so compelling. Our costs are down, not up. Our products are the best they have ever been. Our people are motivated by a shared higher purpose - esprit de corps to die for. And the goodwill in the marketplace - it's just been astonishing.

Ray Anderson

#7. One of the biggest things that needs to change is the educational system. Universities are still teaching a system to students that destroys the biosphere.

Ray Anderson

#8. What's the business case for ending life on earth?

Ray Anderson

#9. I used to think that my job didn't have anything to do with the environment. Then I realized that my job, as well as everyone else's job, impacts the environment in some way. And now advocating for sustainability has become my No. 1 responsibility.

Ray Anderson