It was with much sadness this week that the world of sustainability said goodbye to one of it’s greatest and most effective business advocates, Ray Anderson the inspirational and pioneering founder of Interface. Carpet tiles were never going to be the sexiest product on the block, but having grown the company into a billion dollar business Ray had an epiphany…

He set out to fundamentally transform the company into one with literally no negative environmental impact and for it then to become restorative – actually adding to and enhancing the world’s environmental health. This ‘Mission Zero’ plan was and still is radical, bold and game-changing. And recently Ray reckoned Interface was half way to it’s 2020 goal. The results speak for themselves: greenhouse gas emissions down by 24 percent, fossil fuel consumption down by 60 percent, waste to landfill down by 82 percent and water use down by 82 percent, while avoiding over $450 million in costs, increasing sales by 63 percent and more than doubling earnings. Who said sustainability doesn’t pay?

What’s compelling about Ray’s and Interface’s ambitions is that they always went way beyond simple green house-keeping. They were always about real creativity and transformation of the business model, from one-directional sale of carpet tiles, to service-based leasing which opened up the doors to closing material loops, cradle-to-cradle recycling, cascading of different elements and long-term customer loyalty and relationships. All of which, despite experimental and inevitable bumps along the way ultimately made and are making great business sense.

Perhaps the most striking thing however is how long it is taking other businesses to follow suit. M&S’s much vaunted Plan A and Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan are good examples, but few other companies, despite the provocations of my business partner Solitaire’s ‘Letters to Leaders’, have really embraced the opportunity for radical transformative change.

Why is this? At this month’s Green Monday event on creative disruption we got a few answers. Simon Waldman of LoveFilm set out three criteria for delivering transformation:

1. Leaders  who believe in profound change. Something Ray Anderson had in spades and also Paul Polman at Unilever’s vision…we also note from our own clients that owner-led businesses are often braver, bolder and more determined to ‘do the right thing’.
2. A mix of ‘fixers’, ‘rockstars’ and ‘fire-starters’ to get and keep momentum going.
3. Ability to transform the core business without breaking it whilst simultaneously developing new ideas in parallel.