Ray Anderson, The Ecology of Commerce, and The Next Sustainability Wave

My first experience with a company that really thought outside the box for transformational change, for sustainability and success is Interface Carpets.  Their CEO, Ray Anderson, tells the story in many YouTube videos - here is one of them:

One of the resources Ray Anderson often referred to as the first great eye-opener to help him understand the concept of business helping to shape a new more sustainable world was the book The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken (1993).  I think I read this book many years ago when I first became interested in this topic.

A similar, more recent book on the topic is The Next Sustainability Wave by Bob Willard (2005).  This I haven't read, but it looks like the title is referring to the necessary mass-movement towards sustainability by the business sector - as opposed to the first early adopters - and explains how to sell the transformational thinking concept to business leaders.  It sounds like the kind of thing I'll want to read.  Bob Willard also has a website advertising resources for sustainability champions, good on him.

This kind of stuff leads to competitions, so a few years ago the Global 100 list was started, naming the 100 most sustainable companies of each year.  Anything that helps spur things along!