Carpet Magnate Ray Anderson Wins $100,000 Environmental Prize.

Business Editors

THE WOODLANDS, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 15, 2001

Ray C. Anderson, who declared war on waste in products and processes at the world's largest commercial carpet company, has been named recipient of the 2001 George and Cynthia Mitchell International Prize for Sustainable Development. Anderson, 66, is founder and chairman of Interface Inc., an Atlanta-based, global manufacturer of carpet tiles, carpet, fabrics and other commercial interior products and services.

The $100,000 Mitchell Prize will be awarded for the seventh time since 1974 on Monday, January 29, during the Woodlands Conference. The prize was established by Houston businessman and philanthropist George P. Mitchell and his wife Cynthia to recognize outstanding contributions to sustainable development. This year's selection committee searched for "individuals in the corporate setting or individuals who made corporate sustainable development activities possible." The Woodlands Conference, a two-day colloquium organized by the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC), will explore the changes, capabilities and tools needed to help corporations achieve sustainability.

"Ray Anderson is a pioneer in using innovative approaches to change past practices and to eliminate waste," said Mitchell. "His vision of how sustainable technology can be used as a core principle in doing business is exemplary."

The Mitchell Prize selection committee, organized by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), cites Anderson for his pioneering vision, his leadership in striving to achieve sustainability in his company, his passion in challenging others to achieve sustainability worldwide and his humanity.

"No corporate leader in the United States has done more to set an example that moves us into the world of the future, where new models of operating sustainably must become the standard," said Bruce Alberts, NAS president.

Anderson became chairman, president and CEO of Interface Inc. in February of 1973. After reading Paul Hawken's book, "The Ecology of Commerce," and Daniel Quinn's "Ishmael" in 1994, he became aware of the detrimental impact industry, and even his own company, were having on world resources. He soon instituted an innovative program to transform Interface -- first by making it a "sustainable" company in all practices and eventually to make it a "restorative" company -- one that returns to the earth more than it takes.

In the past six years, Interface has undertaken more than 400 sustainability initiatives, including the design of new carpets and fabrics that are 100 percent recyclable at the end of their use and the development of the first "climate-neutral" floor covering product, Solenium(R). Fortune Magazine, dubbing him the "Green CEO" (May 24, 1999), singled him out for his conversion to "environmentalism" and subsequent accomplishments. Anderson's book, "Mid-Course Correction: Toward a Sustainable Enterprise: The Interface Model" outlines the steps his firm took to develop new business models that safeguard the environment. He served as co-chair of the President's Council on Sustainable Development and received the 1996 Global Green USA Millennium Award for Corporate Environmental Leadership as well as the 1996 Georgia Conservancy Distinguished Conservationist Award.

The Mitchell Prize was last awarded in 1997 to Dr. Marcello de Andrade, a Brazilian physician credited with teaming corporations and local stakeholders to fight the destruction of the Brazilian Amazon forest.

Founded in 1982, the Houston Advanced Research Center is a not-for-profit, university-linked institution promoting sustainable development through policy studies and technology innovation. HARC's Center for Global Studies, now observing its 25th anniversary, conducts research on and informs the public about global issues and policies regarding sustainable development. The Center will be renamed in honor of its founders, George and Cynthia Mitchell, during the conference.

Founded in l863, the National Academy of Sciences is an organization of distinguished scientists and engineers dedicated to the advancement of science and technology for the welfare of society.

Interface Inc., (IFSA) a world leader in the manufacture of integrated flooring and related products, has 26 manufacturing facilities on four continents.

Additional information on the Mitchell Prize and Woodlands Conferences may be found at www.harc.edu/woodlandsconference/.