https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=1346216
https://doi.org/10.60056/Lit.2025.34.350-363
The Road to Sustainability. The Story of an Industrial Company’s Transformation and Its Inspirational Leader
Elka Vasileva
The article focuses on the transformation of the thinking and management of the industrial carpet company Interface towards sustainability. Thirty years ago, the firm’s founder Ray Anderson was challenged by the ideas of the author of The Ecology of Commerce, entrepreneur and environmentalist Paul Hawken. Accidentally falling into his hands, the book changed his view of the world, his life and the management of the company. It leads him to discover that Interface, as a typical company from the time of the first industrial revolution, has a devastating effect on the environment, and that he, as CEO, is a “plunderer of the Earth’s resources” and dooms the lives of future generations. The article presents inspiring leadership to enforce a new closed-loop business model related to environmental “restoration”. With the so-called “Net Zero” target achieved in 2020, the team that inherited the previous experience is setting new targets related to a new “regenerative” business model. The Interface case study has managed to inspire both its competitors and companies from other industries on the path to sustainability.
Keywords: transformation towards sustainability; the “restoration” of the environment; regenerative business model; sustainability leadership
About the author: Elka Vasileva is Professor in the Department of Economy of Natural Resources, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria, where she lectures on quality, environmental and sustainable management. Her research is focused on sustainable consumption and production, and consumers policy.
