He credits his epiphany to reading the landmark book by Paul Hawken The Ecology of Commerce . Making carpet is essentially a chemical manufacturing process. One often stated goal for Interface is to turn off the effluent pipes so that facilities release zero waste. One major innovation has been to move the company away from selling carpet. Instead, they lease floor covering services.
Worn tiles are replaced as needed, so the customer is always happy.
Once removed Interface recycles the worn tiles into new carpet. Now several of Interface's competitors are offering a similar service. Interface plans to make a factory in California run entirely on solar electricity. Anderson predicts that sustainability will be the next industrial revolution. Anderson serves on the President's Council on Sustainable Development and the Board of The Natural Step .