{mosimage} Things are going relatively smoothly, although the struggle to maintain manufacturing processes as efficiently as possible is a constant effort. Then the salesperson on a key account returns from a sales call and says that the customer has asked for the company’s sustainability statement. Are you prepared? Or, will this request throw the nice-to-do list right out the window as you scramble to figure out what sustainability is and what your company is doing about it?

Ray Anderson, founder, chairman and retired chief executive officer of Interface Inc., in Atlanta, a manufacturer of carpet tile, faced just that request in 1996. He had no answer for the salesperson. His research for an answer, his challenge to a hastily formed team and subsequent journey into sustainable manufacturing are detailed in his latest book, “Confessions of a Radical Industrialist.” His quest to build a profitable company actually found a partner in sustainability.

Often, when an either/or proposition is posed, the correct answer is “both.” As noted by Anderson, “I’m profit-minded and extremely competitive. I thought ‘going green’ would definitely enhance our standing with our customers and maybe give us some good press, too. But I also thought it just might be a way to earn bigger profits from doing what was right by the earth. No one had ever attempted that kind of transformation on such a large scale before. We aimed to turn the myth that you could do well in business or do good, but not both, on its head. Our goal was to prove—by example—that you could run a big business both profitably and in an environmentally responsible way. And we succeeded beyond my own high aspirations.”

After a 12-year process, Anderson cites numbers to back up his assertions. He points to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol that was widely derided by his fellow CEOs that sought to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by about 7 percent in the United States by 2010. Others were afraid that meeting that goal would drive them out of business. Interface’s performance by 2008 revealed a reduction of 71 percent in absolute tons of GHG emissions while sales increased by two-thirds and earnings doubled. Interface consumption of fossil fuels per square yard of carpet was down 60 percent, and waste reduction measures put a cumulative $405 million of avoided costs directly into the bottom line.

“Sustainability has given my company a competitive edge in more ways than one,” Anderson continues. “It has proven to be the most powerful marketplace differentiator I have known in my long career. Our costs are down, our profits are up, and our products are the best they’ve ever been. It has rewarded us with more positive visibility and goodwill among our customers than the slickest, most expensive advertising or marketing campaign could possibly have generated. And a strong environmental ethic has no equal for attracting and motivating good people, galvanizing them around a shared higher purpose, and giving them a powerful reason to join and to stay.”

Often, in business, the game goes to the company and its leaders who see a new way and have the courage to forge a new path. Games are not necessarily zero-sum, but sometimes there can be multiple wins. Anderson sums up, “Turning away from the frantic and thoughtless consumption of oil, coal and natural gas will not spell the end of the world; it’s the beginning of a new world of efficiency and clean technologies—and new fortunes.”

Vision required

Developing next-generation manufacturing takes far more vision, commitment and thought than just doing one kaizen event for Lean Manufacturing. Interface’s experience points to a multi-faceted approach that brings together production, product design and supply chain into an integrated whole. Tools to help managers and engineers put it all together may not yet exist, though. This is an opportunity for other suppliers to help lead the way.

{mosimage} “First, you need to understand the systems,” says Terry Swack. “You have to look at the design-through-manufacturing process from a systems approach, considering the entire lifecycle perspective of the product.” She is co-founder and chief executive officer of Sustainable Minds (www.sustainableminds.com), a Cambridge, Mass., supplier of on-demand, early-stage design decision support software and information service that estimates a product’s potential lifecycle environmental and human health impacts in a collaborative, learning work space.

Swack continues, “Everything ties together. Using a minimum number of parts and materials in the product reduces cost and helps make manufacturing more efficient. But there is also a direct correlation ...