The children and grandchildren of Interface founder Ray Anderson are carrying on his legacy as a corporate environmental evangelist.
BEN ROSE
Ray C. Anderson, a corporate environmental evangelist, died more than seven years ago. But his legacy lives on – as strong as ever.
The two major vehicles for Anderson’s continued influence over corporate America include the company he founded – Interface Inc. and his philanthropy – the Ray C. Anderson Foundation, a family endeavor that includes his two daughters and his five grandchildren.
During recent interviews with top executives and with his daughters and grandchildren, it’s obvious everyone feels the responsibility to spread Anderson’s messages of saving our planet before it’s too late.
“We felt that daddy didn’t get to finish what he started,” said Mary Anne Lanier, who chairs the Foundation and works alongside her sister – Harriett Langford, a fellow trustee who also chairs one of the Foundation’s initiatives – The Ray.
Anderson died on Aug. 8, 2011 – 20 months after being diagnosed with cancer – without leaving his family a roadmap on how he wanted them to continue his legacy.
“My mother and my aunt were shocked,” said John Lanier, who is now executive director of Ray C. Anderson Foundation, founded by his grandfather while he was alive. “The Foundation was the beneficiary of his estate, and he left no instructions on what to do. Overnight they became responsible for his foundation, which is now worth about $50 million. It was a total blank slate. It was easy for us to figure out that our job was to advance his legacy.”
Over at Interface, Anderson’s presence still looms large over one of the world’s largest manufacturers of modular carpet and flooring materials. Anderson had ambitious environmental goals for Interface, including becoming carbon neutral by 2020. The company reached that goal two years early.
Jay Gould became CEO of Interface in 2017, succeeding Daniel Hendrix, who followed Anderson in that role. Hendrix continues to serve as chairman of Interface’s board.
“Ray had a huge influence on my life, and I never met him,” Gould said. As former chief innovation officer of The Coca-Cola Co. in 2001, Doug Daft asked a small group of executives to study “purpose driven companies” to get ideas for Coca-Cola’s future. “The first company we looked at was Interface.”
When Hendrix was looking for a successor, the question he had to answer was whether he could “turn over the keys of Ray’s company” to that individual.
“Ray is throughout the whole company,” Hendrix said . “Ray is the spirit of the company – it’s the culture that he set.”
Under Gould and Hendrix, Interface continues to push the sustainability envelope – most recently by moving its headquarters from Vinings to Midtown across the street from the Arts Center MARTA station to encourage the use of transit by its team members and visitors.
“I start almost every presentation with a photo of Ray,” Gould said.
On one of the company’s interior walls, there’s a quote by Anderson: “Brighten the corner of where you are…. and what if everybody did it?”
It’s a message his children, grandchildren and their significant others have taken that message to heart.
After Ray Anderson died, Mary Anne said that she and her sister “pouted for about six months” before bringing together a “dream team” of environmental experts to help them guide the foundation.
“We didn’t have the opportunity to practice philanthropy with our dad,” Mary Anne said. “We didn’t want our kids to have that experience.”
So they created the “Next Gen” committee of the Foundation to help the children practice philanthropy. The first year – 2014, they were asked to give away $50,000. Now the “Next Gen” committee is giving away $100,000 a year. They will award a $90,000 grant to a nonprofit involved with climate change; and the remaining $10,000 is being split among the five grandchildren (and their significant others), who will each give $2,000 to a nonprofit of their choice.