0:00:00.000,0:00:04.000
Believe me or not, I come offering a solution

0:00:04.000,0:00:08.000
to a very important part of this larger problem,

0:00:08.000,0:00:10.000
with the requisite focus on climate.

0:00:10.000,0:00:12.000
And the solution I offer

0:00:12.000,0:00:14.000
is to the biggest culprit

0:00:14.000,0:00:18.000
in this massive mistreatment of the earth

0:00:18.000,0:00:20.000
by humankind,

0:00:20.000,0:00:23.000
and the resulting decline of the biosphere.

0:00:23.000,0:00:26.000
That culprit is business and industry,

0:00:26.000,0:00:29.000
which happens to be where I have spent the last 52 years

0:00:29.000,0:00:33.000
since my graduation from Georgia Tech in 1956.

0:00:33.000,0:00:35.000
As an industrial engineer,

0:00:35.000,0:00:39.000
cum aspiring and then successful entrepreneur.

0:00:39.000,0:00:42.000
After founding my company, Interface, from scratch

0:00:42.000,0:00:45.000
in 1973, 36 years ago,

0:00:45.000,0:00:47.000
to produce carpet tiles in America

0:00:47.000,0:00:50.000
for the business and institution markets,

0:00:50.000,0:00:53.000
and shepherding it through start-up and survival

0:00:53.000,0:00:56.000
to prosperity and global dominance in its field,

0:00:56.000,0:00:58.000
I read Paul Hawken's book,

0:00:58.000,0:01:00.000
"The Ecology of Commerce,"

0:01:00.000,0:01:03.000
the summer of 1994.

0:01:03.000,0:01:06.000
In his book, Paul charges business and industry

0:01:06.000,0:01:09.000
as, one, the major culprit

0:01:09.000,0:01:11.000
in causing the decline of the biosphere,

0:01:11.000,0:01:14.000
and, two, the only institution that is large enough,

0:01:14.000,0:01:16.000
and pervasive enough, and powerful enough,

0:01:16.000,0:01:20.000
to really lead humankind out of this mess.

0:01:20.000,0:01:23.000
And by the way he convicted me

0:01:23.000,0:01:25.000
as a plunderer of the earth.

0:01:25.000,0:01:28.000
And I then challenged the people of Interface, my company,

0:01:28.000,0:01:32.000
to lead our company and the entire industrial world to sustainability,

0:01:32.000,0:01:34.000
which we defined as eventually operating

0:01:34.000,0:01:37.000
our petroleum-intensive company in such a way

0:01:37.000,0:01:39.000
as to take from the earth

0:01:39.000,0:01:43.000
only what can be renewed by the earth, naturally and rapidly --

0:01:43.000,0:01:45.000
not another fresh drop of oil --

0:01:45.000,0:01:49.000
and to do no harm to the biosphere.

0:01:49.000,0:01:51.000
Take nothing: do no harm.

0:01:51.000,0:01:53.000
I simply said, "If Hawken is right

0:01:53.000,0:01:55.000
and business and industry must lead,

0:01:55.000,0:01:57.000
who will lead business and industry?

0:01:57.000,0:02:00.000
Unless somebody leads, nobody will."

0:02:00.000,0:02:03.000
It's axiomatic. Why not us?

0:02:03.000,0:02:05.000
And thanks to the people of Interface,

0:02:05.000,0:02:08.000
I have become a recovering plunderer.

0:02:08.000,0:02:09.000
(Laughter)

0:02:09.000,0:02:14.000
(Applause)

0:02:14.000,0:02:18.000
I once told a Fortune Magazine writer

0:02:18.000,0:02:21.000
that someday people like me would go to jail.

0:02:21.000,0:02:23.000
And that became the headline of a Fortune article.

0:02:23.000,0:02:27.000
They went on to describe me as America's greenest CEO.

0:02:27.000,0:02:30.000
From plunderer to recovering plunderer,

0:02:30.000,0:02:33.000
to America's greenest CEO in five years --

0:02:33.000,0:02:35.000
that, frankly, was a pretty sad commentary

0:02:35.000,0:02:40.000
on American CEOs in 1999.

0:02:40.000,0:02:43.000
Asked later in the Canadian documentary, "The Corporation,"

0:02:43.000,0:02:46.000
what I meant by the "go to jail" remark,

0:02:46.000,0:02:50.000
I offered that theft is a crime.

0:02:50.000,0:02:55.000
And theft of our children's future would someday be a crime.

0:02:55.000,0:02:57.000
But I realized, for that to be true --

0:02:57.000,0:03:00.000
for theft of our children's future to be a crime --

0:03:00.000,0:03:03.000
there must be a clear, demonstrable alternative

0:03:03.000,0:03:06.000
to the take-make-waste industrial system

0:03:06.000,0:03:09.000
that so dominates our civilization,

0:03:09.000,0:03:12.000
and is the major culprit, stealing our children's future,

0:03:12.000,0:03:14.000
by digging up the earth

0:03:14.000,0:03:18.000
and converting it to products that quickly become waste

0:03:18.000,0:03:20.000
in a landfill or an incinerator --

0:03:20.000,0:03:25.000
in short, digging up the earth and converting it to pollution.

0:03:25.000,0:03:27.000
According to Paul and Anne Ehrlich

0:03:27.000,0:03:30.000
and a well-known environmental impact equation,

0:03:30.000,0:03:32.000
impact -- a bad thing --

0:03:32.000,0:03:36.000
is the product of population, affluence and technology.

0:03:36.000,0:03:40.000
That is, impact is generated by people,

0:03:40.000,0:03:42.000
what they consume in their affluence,

0:03:42.000,0:03:45.000
and how it is produced.

0:03:45.000,0:03:47.000
And though the equation is largely subjective,

0:03:47.000,0:03:51.000
you can perhaps quantify people, and perhaps quantify affluence,

0:03:51.000,0:03:55.000
but technology is abusive in too many ways to quantify.

0:03:55.000,0:03:57.000
So the equation is conceptual.

0:03:57.000,0:04:00.000
Still it works to help us understand the problem.

0:04:00.000,0:04:05.000
So we set out at Interface, in 1994,

0:04:05.000,0:04:07.000
to create an example:

0:04:07.000,0:04:09.000
to transform the way we made carpet,

0:04:09.000,0:04:13.000
a petroleum-intensive product for materials as well as energy,

0:04:13.000,0:04:15.000
and to transform our technologies

0:04:15.000,0:04:18.000
so they diminished environmental impact,

0:04:18.000,0:04:21.000
rather than multiplied it.

0:04:21.000,0:04:24.000
Paul and Anne Ehrlich's environmental impact equation:

0:04:24.000,0:04:27.000
I is equal to P times A times T:

0:04:27.000,0:04:30.000
population, affluence and technology.

0:04:30.000,0:04:36.000
I wanted Interface to rewrite that equation so that it read

0:04:36.000,0:04:39.000
I equals P times A divided by T.

0:04:39.000,0:04:42.000
Now, the mathematically-minded will see immediately

0:04:42.000,0:04:45.000
that T in the numerator increases impact -- a bad thing --

0:04:45.000,0:04:49.000
but T in the denominator decreases impact.

0:04:49.000,0:04:53.000
So I ask, "What would move T, technology,

0:04:53.000,0:04:55.000
from the numerator -- call it T1 --

0:04:55.000,0:04:57.000
where it increases impact,

0:04:57.000,0:05:00.000
to the denominator -- call it T2 --

0:05:00.000,0:05:03.000
where it reduces impact?

0:05:03.000,0:05:07.000
I thought about the characteristics

0:05:07.000,0:05:09.000
of first industrial revolution,

0:05:09.000,0:05:12.000
T1, as we practiced it at Interface,

0:05:12.000,0:05:16.000
and it had the following characteristics.

0:05:16.000,0:05:20.000
Extractive: taking raw materials from the earth.

0:05:20.000,0:05:23.000
Linear: take, make, waste.

0:05:23.000,0:05:25.000
Powered by fossil fuel-derived energy.

0:05:25.000,0:05:29.000
Wasteful: abusive and focused on labor productivity.

0:05:29.000,0:05:32.000
More carpet per man-hour.

0:05:32.000,0:05:35.000
Thinking it through, I realized that all those attributes

0:05:35.000,0:05:40.000
must be changed to move T to the denominator.

0:05:40.000,0:05:45.000
In the new industrial revolution extractive must be replaced by renewable;

0:05:45.000,0:05:47.000
linear by cyclical;

0:05:47.000,0:05:51.000
fossil fuel energy by renewable energy, sunlight;

0:05:51.000,0:05:53.000
wasteful by waste-free;

0:05:53.000,0:05:55.000
and abusive by benign;

0:05:55.000,0:05:59.000
and labor productivity by resource productivity.

0:05:59.000,0:06:03.000
And I reasoned that if we could make those transformative changes,

0:06:03.000,0:06:05.000
and get rid of T1 altogether,

0:06:05.000,0:06:08.000
we could reduce our impact to zero,

0:06:08.000,0:06:11.000
including our impact on the climate.

0:06:11.000,0:06:14.000
And that became the Interface plan in 1995,

0:06:14.000,0:06:17.000
and has been the plan ever since.

0:06:17.000,0:06:21.000
We have measured our progress very rigorously.

0:06:21.000,0:06:25.000
So I can tell you how far we have come in the ensuing 12 years.

0:06:25.000,0:06:27.000
Net greenhouse gas emissions

0:06:27.000,0:06:31.000
down 82 percent in absolute tonnage.

0:06:31.000,0:06:35.000
(Applause)

0:06:35.000,0:06:37.000
Over the same span of time

0:06:37.000,0:06:40.000
sales have increased by two-thirds and profits have doubled.

0:06:40.000,0:06:43.000
So an 82 percent absolute reduction

0:06:43.000,0:06:45.000
translates into a 90 percent reduction

0:06:45.000,0:06:49.000
in greenhouse gas intensity relative to sales.

0:06:49.000,0:06:51.000
This is the magnitude

0:06:51.000,0:06:54.000
of the reduction the entire global technosphere

0:06:54.000,0:06:57.000
must realize by 2050

0:06:57.000,0:07:00.000
to avoid catastrophic climate disruption --

0:07:00.000,0:07:03.000
so the scientists are telling us.

0:07:03.000,0:07:07.000
Fossil fuel usage is down 60 percent per unit of production,

0:07:07.000,0:07:09.000
due to efficiencies in renewables.

0:07:09.000,0:07:12.000
The cheapest, most secure barrel of oil there is

0:07:12.000,0:07:15.000
is the one not used through efficiencies.

0:07:15.000,0:07:18.000
Water usage is down 75 percent

0:07:18.000,0:07:20.000
in our worldwide carpet tile business.

0:07:20.000,0:07:23.000
Down 40 percent in our broadloom carpet business,

0:07:23.000,0:07:25.000
which we acquired in 1993

0:07:25.000,0:07:27.000
right here in California, City of Industry,

0:07:27.000,0:07:30.000
where water is so precious.

0:07:30.000,0:07:34.000
Renewable or recyclable materials are 25 percent of the total, and growing rapidly.

0:07:34.000,0:07:37.000
Renewable energy is 27 percent of our total,

0:07:37.000,0:07:39.000
going for 100 percent.

0:07:39.000,0:07:42.000
We have diverted 148 million pounds --

0:07:42.000,0:07:44.000
that's 74,000 tons --

0:07:44.000,0:07:47.000
of used carpet from landfills,

0:07:47.000,0:07:49.000
closing the loop on material flows

0:07:49.000,0:07:51.000
through reverse logistics

0:07:51.000,0:07:54.000
and post-consumer recycling technologies

0:07:54.000,0:07:58.000
that did not exist when we started 14 years ago.

0:07:58.000,0:08:00.000
Those new cyclical technologies

0:08:00.000,0:08:03.000
have contributed mightily to the fact that we have produced and sold

0:08:03.000,0:08:07.000
85 million square yards of climate-neutral carpet

0:08:07.000,0:08:09.000
since 2004,

0:08:09.000,0:08:13.000
meaning no net contribution to global climate disruption

0:08:13.000,0:08:15.000
in producing the carpet throughout the supply chain,

0:08:15.000,0:08:20.000
from mine and well head clear to end-of-life reclamation --

0:08:20.000,0:08:22.000
independent third-party certified.

0:08:22.000,0:08:25.000
We call it Cool Carpet.

0:08:25.000,0:08:28.000
And it has been a powerful marketplace differentiator,

0:08:28.000,0:08:30.000
increasing sales and profits.

0:08:30.000,0:08:34.000
Three years ago we launched carpet tile for the home,

0:08:34.000,0:08:36.000
under the brand Flor,

0:08:36.000,0:08:39.000
misspelled F-L-O-R.

0:08:39.000,0:08:41.000
You can point and click today at Flor.com

0:08:41.000,0:08:45.000
and have Cool Carpet delivered to your front door in five days.

0:08:45.000,0:08:48.000
It is practical, and pretty too.

0:08:48.000,0:08:49.000
(Laughter)

0:08:49.000,0:08:55.000
(Applause)

0:08:55.000,0:08:57.000
We reckon that we are a bit over halfway

0:08:57.000,0:09:02.000
to our goal: zero impact, zero footprint.

0:09:02.000,0:09:05.000
We've set 2020 as our target year for zero,

0:09:05.000,0:09:10.000
for reaching the top, the summit of Mount Sustainability.

0:09:10.000,0:09:12.000
We call this Mission Zero.

0:09:12.000,0:09:15.000
And this is perhaps the most important facet:

0:09:15.000,0:09:19.000
we have found Mission Zero to be incredibly good for business.

0:09:19.000,0:09:22.000
A better business model,

0:09:22.000,0:09:24.000
a better way to bigger profits.

0:09:24.000,0:09:27.000
Here is the business case for sustainability.

0:09:27.000,0:09:31.000
From real life experience, costs are down, not up,

0:09:31.000,0:09:33.000
reflecting some 400 million dollars

0:09:33.000,0:09:37.000
of avoided costs in pursuit of zero waste --

0:09:37.000,0:09:40.000
the first face of Mount Sustainability.

0:09:40.000,0:09:44.000
This has paid all the costs for the transformation of Interface.

0:09:44.000,0:09:46.000
And this dispels a myth too,

0:09:46.000,0:09:50.000
this false choice between the environment and the economy.

0:09:50.000,0:09:52.000
Our products are the best they've ever been,

0:09:52.000,0:09:54.000
inspired by design for sustainability,

0:09:54.000,0:09:58.000
an unexpected wellspring of innovation.

0:09:58.000,0:10:01.000
Our people are galvanized around this shared higher purpose.

0:10:01.000,0:10:03.000
You cannot beat it for attracting the best people

0:10:03.000,0:10:06.000
and bringing them together.

0:10:06.000,0:10:09.000
And the goodwill of the marketplace is astonishing.

0:10:09.000,0:10:13.000
No amount of advertising, no clever marketing campaign,

0:10:13.000,0:10:16.000
at any price, could have produced or created

0:10:16.000,0:10:19.000
this much goodwill.

0:10:19.000,0:10:21.000
Costs, products, people, marketplaces --

0:10:21.000,0:10:23.000
what else is there?

0:10:23.000,0:10:25.000
It is a better business model.

0:10:25.000,0:10:30.000
And here is our 14-year record of sales and profits.

0:10:30.000,0:10:33.000
There is a dip there, from 2001 to 2003:

0:10:33.000,0:10:35.000
a dip when our sales, over a three-year period,

0:10:35.000,0:10:37.000
were down 17 percent.

0:10:37.000,0:10:40.000
But the marketplace was down 36 percent.

0:10:40.000,0:10:42.000
We literally gained market share.

0:10:42.000,0:10:45.000
We might not have survived that recession

0:10:45.000,0:10:48.000
but for the advantages of sustainability.

0:10:48.000,0:10:52.000
If every business were pursuing Interface plans,

0:10:52.000,0:10:54.000
would that solve all our problems?

0:10:54.000,0:10:56.000
I don't think so.

0:10:56.000,0:10:59.000
I remain troubled by the revised Ehrlich equation,

0:10:59.000,0:11:03.000
I equals P times A divided by T2.

0:11:03.000,0:11:05.000
That A is a capital A,

0:11:05.000,0:11:10.000
suggesting that affluence is an end in itself.

0:11:10.000,0:11:14.000
But what if we reframed Ehrlich further?

0:11:14.000,0:11:17.000
And what if we made A a lowercase 'a,'

0:11:17.000,0:11:19.000
suggesting that it is a means to an end,

0:11:19.000,0:11:22.000
and that end is happiness --

0:11:22.000,0:11:25.000
more happiness with less stuff.

0:11:25.000,0:11:28.000
You know that would reframe civilization itself --

0:11:28.000,0:11:36.000
(Applause) --

0:11:36.000,0:11:39.000
and our whole system of economics,

0:11:39.000,0:11:45.000
if not for our species, then perhaps for the one that succeeds us:

0:11:45.000,0:11:48.000
the sustainable species, living on a finite earth,

0:11:48.000,0:11:51.000
ethically, happily and ecologically

0:11:51.000,0:11:53.000
in balance with nature

0:11:53.000,0:11:56.000
and all her natural systems for a thousand generations,

0:11:56.000,0:11:58.000
or 10,000 generations --

0:11:58.000,0:12:01.000
that is to say, into the indefinite future.

0:12:01.000,0:12:06.000
But does the earth have to wait for our extinction as a species?

0:12:06.000,0:12:09.000
Well maybe so. But I don't think so.

0:12:09.000,0:12:12.000
At Interface we really intend to bring this prototypical

0:12:12.000,0:12:15.000
sustainable, zero-footprint industrial company

0:12:15.000,0:12:18.000
fully into existence by 2020.

0:12:18.000,0:12:20.000
We can see our way now,

0:12:20.000,0:12:22.000
clear to the top of that mountain.

0:12:22.000,0:12:25.000
And now the challenge is in execution.

0:12:25.000,0:12:28.000
And as my good friend and adviser Amory Lovins says,

0:12:28.000,0:12:32.000
"If something exists, it must be possible."

0:12:32.000,0:12:35.000
(Laughter)

0:12:35.000,0:12:38.000
If we can actually do it, it must be possible.

0:12:38.000,0:12:42.000
If we, a petro-intensive company can do it, anybody can.

0:12:42.000,0:12:46.000
And if anybody can, it follows that everybody can.

0:12:46.000,0:12:49.000
Hawken fulfilled business and industry,

0:12:49.000,0:12:53.000
leading humankind away from the abyss

0:12:53.000,0:12:58.000
because, with continued unchecked decline of the biosphere,

0:12:58.000,0:13:01.000
a very dear person is at risk here --

0:13:01.000,0:13:03.000
frankly, an unacceptable risk.

0:13:03.000,0:13:05.000
Who is that person?

0:13:05.000,0:13:07.000
Not you. Not I.

0:13:07.000,0:13:10.000
But let me introduce you to the one who is most at risk here.

0:13:10.000,0:13:14.000
And I myself met this person in the early days of this mountain climb.

0:13:14.000,0:13:18.000
On a Tuesday morning in March of 1996,

0:13:18.000,0:13:21.000
I was talking to people, as I did at every opportunity back then,

0:13:21.000,0:13:25.000
bringing them along and often not knowing whether I was connecting.

0:13:25.000,0:13:28.000
But about five days later back in Atlanta,

0:13:28.000,0:13:31.000
I received an email from Glenn Thomas,

0:13:31.000,0:13:33.000
one of my people in the California meeting.

0:13:33.000,0:13:35.000
He was sending me an original poem

0:13:35.000,0:13:38.000
that he had composed after our Tuesday morning together.

0:13:38.000,0:13:42.000
And when I read it it was one of the most uplifting moments of my life.

0:13:42.000,0:13:46.000
Because it told me, by God, one person got it.

0:13:46.000,0:13:50.000
Here is what Glenn wrote. And here is that person, most at risk.

0:13:50.000,0:13:54.000
Please meet "Tomorrow's Child."

0:13:54.000,0:13:58.000
"Without a name, an unseen face, and knowing not your time or place,

0:13:58.000,0:14:01.000
Tomorrow's child, though yet unborn,

0:14:01.000,0:14:04.000
I met you first last Tuesday morn.

0:14:04.000,0:14:06.000
A wise friend introduced us two.

0:14:06.000,0:14:08.000
And through his sobering point of view

0:14:08.000,0:14:13.000
I saw a day that you would see, a day for you but not for me.

0:14:13.000,0:14:15.000
Knowing you has changed my thinking.

0:14:15.000,0:14:17.000
For I never had an inkling

0:14:17.000,0:14:20.000
that perhaps the things I do might someday,

0:14:20.000,0:14:23.000
somehow threaten you.

0:14:23.000,0:14:25.000
Tomorrow's child, my daughter, son,

0:14:25.000,0:14:27.000
I'm afraid I've just begun to think of you and of your good,

0:14:27.000,0:14:31.000
though always having known I should.

0:14:31.000,0:14:33.000
Begin, I will.

0:14:33.000,0:14:36.000
The way the cost of what I squander, what is lost,

0:14:36.000,0:14:38.000
if ever I forget that you

0:14:38.000,0:14:42.000
will someday come and live here too."

0:14:42.000,0:14:44.000
Well, every day of my life since,

0:14:44.000,0:14:46.000
"Tomorrow's Child" has spoken to me

0:14:46.000,0:14:48.000
with one simple but profound message,

0:14:48.000,0:14:50.000
which I presume to share with you.

0:14:50.000,0:14:52.000
We are, each and every one,

0:14:52.000,0:14:55.000
a part of the web of life.

0:14:55.000,0:14:59.000
The continuum of humanity, sure, but in a larger sense, the web of life itself.

0:14:59.000,0:15:01.000
And we have a choice to make

0:15:01.000,0:15:03.000
during our brief, brief visit

0:15:03.000,0:15:07.000
to this beautiful blue and green living planet:

0:15:07.000,0:15:10.000
to hurt it or to help it.

0:15:10.000,0:15:13.000
For you, it's your call.

0:15:13.000,0:15:15.000
Thank you.

0:15:15.000,0:15:30.000
(Applause)