One of my heroes, Ray Anderson, Founder and CEO of Interface Carpet, the largest commercial carpeting manufacturer in the world, passed away this week.  He is my primary inspiration for what I do.  Although the Corporation has done great damage to our planet, I believe, as Ray did, that this is the only institution that has the ability to make things right.

Ray liked to tell a story about a visitor to his company.  She was a consulting client at the LaGrange, Georgia manufacturing facility, going through a very difficult time of understanding and integrating the paradigm of sustainability.

On a coffee break, she stepped out of the conference room and walked down to the factory floor.  Now you should know that at the Interface HQ in LaGrange Georgia, visitors are encouraged to speak with any employee that they come across, from the janitor to the CFO.

She approached one of the forklift operators, who was also on his coffee break and they struck up a conversation.  She asked the fellow what it was that he did there in the plant.  The forklift operator replied, “I come to work each day and save the planet.”   When she asked him what he meant, he told her about his role in the company to reduce waste and save raw materials, and how this ultimately made the planet better for his children.

As the visitor stood there with her mouth gaping wide open in complete shock, the forklift driver said to her, “I don’t want to be rude, but if I don’t get this roll of carpet over to the next machine right now, our efficiency numbers are going to be way off”, and off he went.

A culture of sustainability creates surprises and consequences that we can’t even begin to fully articulate.   When day-in and day-out, line level employees, embrace even mundane tasks like driving a forklift because they are “saving the planet”, a sense of loyalty and vision get baked into a company in a way that no amount of money or fancy corporate pep rallies can mimic.

Herein lies the difference between “Corporate Social Responsibility” and true sustainability.  The two things are so different that they really shouldn’t exist in the same universe.  It’s like the difference between the Beatles and Herman’s Hermits.  Sure, they both come from England, but the similarity pretty much ends there.  Corporate Social Responsibility is about having the company “give back” to the community or try to go clean up a disaster area.  Don’t get me wrong; there’s nothing wrong with that and there’s a place for it.  But it doesn’t produce value to the company in any tangible or measurable way.

Sustainability, on the other hand, drives value on multiple levels.  Even sustainable organizations aren’t perfect.  Sustainability is not about perfect.  It’s about a mindset, or a paradigm.  When the forklift operator cuts the coffee break short because the efficiency numbers are important to him, personally, that is a driver of value.  When he comes to work every day to save the planet for his kids, that has a demonstrable impact on the company’s bottom line.   People like that are what separate the good, from the truly great.   Companies like this one are the exception, and not the rule.  But this must change if humans are to survive for more than another generation or so.