Carpet Goes Cradle-to-Cradle
by Jo Confino, THE GUARDIAN.CO.UK, September 1, 2011
Zero impact means a rethink of the entire business model from R&D to manufacturing to marketing and selling but, says Desso’s CEO, it’s worth it.
Who would have imagined that the humble carpet tile would become a hotbed of innovation on the road to a more sustainable future?
Ray Anderson was responsible for leading the way st InterfaceFlor, pioneering the goal of achieving zero impact through a change in the business paradigm.
But ever since he opened up a lead in the sector, other businesses have been playing catch-up – with varying degrees of success.
It’s a fascinating example of how industry-led competition, rather than consumer demand, has been such an important engine of change.
One company that can claim with some credibility to have narrowed the gap is Dutch-based Desso.
The carpet and artificial grass specialist has wnthusiastically embraced the cradle to cradle philosophy developed by the chemist Michael Braungart and architect William McDonough.
Desso chief executive Stef Kranendijk, who has been with the business since 2007, recognises the work done by InterfaceFlor, even though he cannot quite bear to mention his competitor by name. He claims that Desso is now "being seen as the number one carpet company going beyond sustainability".
The inspiration for his conversion came, he says, from watching Braungart and McDonough’s documentary, Waste = Food.
Ray Anderson’s epiphany came from reading Paul Hawken’s book, The Ecology of Commerce. While Anderson felt "the point of a spear driven straight into my heart" while reading the book, Kranendijk’s response was a little less dramatic: "I started sweating and felt a panic in my head – I thought that this is fantastic. Such a logical, meaningful concept and I wanted to do this.
"The reason I started to panic is because I recognised this would mean we would have to change the whole way we work: R&D, manufacturing, the way we market and sell.
"I approached Michael Braungart and said I want my whole company to become cradle to cradle and wanted him personally to help. One week later he was sitting around my table of top management. Most concerned to begin with were our heads of R&D and operations. But people within the company were rather quickly convinced that this was the right thing to do and would give us a competitive advantage."
Kranendijk says the implementation process has done just that, helping to deliver increased profit margins, even through the recession.
Kranendijk, who worked for Procter & Gamble for 19 years before joining Desso, has made a commitment that all the company’s products will be fully cradle to cradle by 2020. [Read rest of story]