Whoever told us that getting what we want, no matter what the cost, rewards us with profits?

What presumptions did we assume during the Industrial Revolution?

Did someone say the earth has a voracious appetite for our refuse without choking?

Paul Hawkens contradicts our presumptions, assumptions, and earth-born arrogance by recognizing an eternal premise: the earth lives, and we have no right, in the name of profits, to destroy the land.

Hawkens, (read The Ecology of Commerce) taught Ray Anderson that sustaining the earth is consistent with making profits. You can treat your customer with high regard, make decorative carpets with sustainable characteristics, offer free recycling of what you make, while making profits.

Ray Anderson is the founder of Interface, the company that makes those adorable Flor carpet tiles (as well as lots of less whizzy but equally useful flooring and fabric). He was a serious carpet guy, focused on building his company and making great products. Then he read Paul Hawken’s book The Ecology of Commerce. Something clicked: with his company’s global reach and manufacturing footprint, he was in a position to do something very real, very important, in building a sustainable world.

Here’s what Ray Anderson told a Ted conference (If you want to learn innovative ideas from critical thinkers, check out “Ted, Ideas worth spreading“.