StitchLand

View all entries from StitchLand >

Stitch

Taiwan

Ray Aderson

June 29, 2007

Ray Aderson is inspirational to me. Here is a link to his talk about sustainability.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcRDUIbT4gw

From Wikipida:

Ray Anderson is founder and chairman of Interface, Inc, the world's largest manufacturer of modular carpet for commercial and residential applications and a leading producer of commercial broadloom and commercial fabrics. He is "known in environmental circles for his advanced and progressive stance on industrial ecology and sustainability." Since 1995, he has reduced Interface's waste by a third, and plans to make the company sustainable by 2020.

For instance, under his leadership, Interface seeks to reduce and then eliminate "petroleum from its manufacturing processes." He is pioneering recycling efforts with nylon and polyester which "is recyclable, leading to more closed loop technologies for the future." However, Anderson

"wasn't always a friend of the environment. He had his epiphany in 1994 when he read The Ecology of Commerce, by Paul Hawken, who argues that [the] industrial system is destroying the planet and only industry leaders are powerful enough to stop it."

-------------------------------------------------------------------

First time I heard about Ray Anderson was about two years ago when I watched a dvd called "The Corporation" I don't agree with everything in the film, but it is well made with good arguments. You should make your own judgment on some of the materials in the film. However, it's still a good documentary, and I recommend it.

More entries: Penghu, San Diego, L.A. Fun (5), NYC (5), Toronto, Canada (20), Chicago (13), Broadway Show (2), Good Movie: The Counterfeiters (Die Fälscher) (1), Double Heart Stone Weir (32), Evolution Less Accepted in U.S. Than Other Western Countries, Study Finds (3)

View all entries from StitchLand >

5 Comments
Comment on this

03:33 PM May 29 2008
0060126222736 Malaysia	hi Stitch, first of thanx a lot 4 valuable info abt the corporaton....all we should stand up together,,,respect each other as human more then anything and realise that we r living in the world is one....shudn't be divided it by nation,race,religion etc....then this world will be more(but never be 100%) peacefull..... NB:- All i ever wanted to build a community based school which will help & develop people in verious way specialy the less fortune & orphange children...hope to see u in my blog too www.theogf.blogspot.com best regards.

03:33 PM May 29 2008

0060126222736
Malaysia

hi Stitch,

first of thanx a lot 4 valuable info abt the corporaton....all we should stand up together,,,respect each other as human more then anything and realise that we r living in the world is one....shudn't be divided it by nation,race,religion etc....then this world will be more(but never be 100%) peacefull.....

NB:- All i ever wanted to build a community based school which will help & develop people in verious way specialy the less fortune & orphange children...hope to see u in my blog too www.theogf.blogspot.com

best regards.

02:35 PM Aug 05 2007
worldmikel United States	Corporation is a great documentary. I found it on Canadian TV's "TV Ontario" here serialized a couple years ago. Anderson didn't stand out in my memory, but it is a nice part. Nice that some of the people that have helped set us on a wrong course have taken a little bit of a U-Turn. Maybe a little too little; a little too late. I had the occasion to talk to a girl in Hengshui in China about pollution in Beijing. She was not aware how polluted the air is in Beijing. I described the view as I flew out of there and how brown/gray the sky was below me. We also talked about how Detroit, Michigan used to be this way, as it was formerly a factory town. I told her that since the factories left, the air and water is relatively clean. She asked me where the factories went to. I told her Mexico and China! She misunderstood and thought that this was a choice the city made to protect our environment. ;o) She didn't realize that this was an unintended benefit of the greedy car companies looking to exploit cheaper labor and fewer pollution restrictions in foreign countries. I'm guessing that any "successful" fabric company is doing the same. Most of America's efforts toward "sustainability" are simply window dressing or "Greenwashing". It is something they do simply for show, since there is little quick and easy profit in doing the right thing. And that is the Corporation's bottom line, each day, month, quarter and year. The initiative for recycling and sustainability won't happen until the countries that are the "factories" for the Western world stand up and say "We don't want your crap anymore! We want a fair wage! Don't use us as your sewer or trash bin!"

02:35 PM Aug 05 2007

worldmikel
United States

Corporation is a great documentary. I found it on Canadian TV's "TV Ontario" here serialized a couple years ago. Anderson didn't stand out in my memory, but it is a nice part. Nice that some of the people that have helped set us on a wrong course have taken a little bit of a U-Turn. Maybe a little too little; a little too late.

I had the occasion to talk to a girl in Hengshui in China about pollution in Beijing. She was not aware how polluted the air is in Beijing. I described the view as I flew out of there and how brown/gray the sky was below me. We also talked about how Detroit, Michigan used to be this way, as it was formerly a factory town. I told her that since the factories left, the air and water is relatively clean. She asked me where the factories went to. I told her Mexico and China! She misunderstood and thought that this was a choice the city made to protect our environment. ;o) She didn't realize that this was an unintended benefit of the greedy car companies looking to exploit cheaper labor and fewer pollution restrictions in foreign countries.

I'm guessing that any "successful" fabric company is doing the same. Most of America's efforts toward "sustainability" are simply window dressing or "Greenwashing". It is something they do simply for show, since there is little quick and easy profit in doing the right thing. And that is the Corporation's bottom line, each day, month, quarter and year. The initiative for recycling and sustainability won't happen until the countries that are the "factories" for the Western world stand up and say "We don't want your crap anymore! We want a fair wage! Don't use us as your sewer or trash bin!"