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Reviewed by Marilyn Farmer, AIA, LEED AP
Published by Peregrinzilla Press, 1999
 Mid-Course
Correction, by Ray C. Anderson, founder and CEO of carpet
giant Interface, is a story of success—one we sorely need to
hear in the midst of all the environmental and social crises, the
seemingly insurmountable list of things that need fixing, and the
global issues that seem beyond our individual abilities to even
address, let alone resolve. It is a joyful story of how one person
can initiate a huge change and, at the same time, a sobering
reminder to us all that we need to be that person. This book came
out in 1999 but the story has relevance several years later.
The story is about good design, whether it be a building, a
material used in the building, a company, or a large-scale
community. It is an illustration of how good design can be used to
reinvent an individual life, a company, to increase financial
gain and have significant positive impacts that change
the world. It is a story about the guts to venture into the unknown
in every sense with only an inkling of the destination. It is a
story of leadership and vision, one which describes a new
organizational model that entitles and charges the entire company
with the challenge and responsibility to do good, replacing the
autocratic, top down business model of the first industrial
age.
By his own definition, Anderson, categorizes himself, all other
industrial companies, and us end users who are driving the sinking
boat, as “legal thieves” plundering the earth in
accordance to "perverse tax laws" which externalize the real costs
of global warming, pollution, overuse, and waste. In thoughtful,
concise, well-researched, and well-documented discourse, Anderson
beautifully articulates the historical backdrop, as well as the
context and urgency of our time and place. Drawing from nearly
every corner of expertise—Bill McDonough, Rachel Carson,
Lester Thurow, Paul and Anne Erhlich, Phil Hawken, Amory Lovins,
Abraham Maslow, Daniel Quinn, Al Gore, Dr. Karl-Henrick Robert,
Lester Brown, Donella Meadows, and Fritjof Capra—Anderson
makes a convincing case for “the next industrialized
revolution.”
Anderson eloquently restates David Brower’s “Let the
party begin!” historical perspective of our species in
relationship to the earth’s geologic time, adding that "our
life space is so short that it is like being in only two or three
frames of a movie that has been running for a long time…Our
time on earth is just so brief that we don’t see enough of the
movie, can’t even see the next scene, much less where
it’s all headed.” It is astonishing that even with such a
bit part, that we have had such an enormous impact and effect on
the outcome of the movie.
Using a NASA scientist's analogy of the Apollo XI man on the moon
mission as being off-course 90 percent of the time, with a critical
mid-course correction that made it possible to reach the moon,
Anderson describes his personal mid-course correction that inspired
a large corporate revolution and in turn inspired an entire
industry’s reevolution.
A firm believer in technology, Anderson makes the case for
reconciling the ongoing argument between the technophobes (those
who attribute all current negative states to technological
advancements) and technophiles (those who believe technology can
solve all our problems) by changing the technologies themselves.
Echoing McDonough, he believes that new fortunes will be made in
creating technologies that are “renewable, rather than
extractive; cyclical (cradle-to-cradle), rather than lineal; solar-
or hydrogen-driven, rather than fossil fuel-driven; focused on
resource productivity, rather than labor productivity; and benign
in their effect on the biosphere, rather than abusive.”
This book contains extremely pertinent, invaluable information and
quite detailed information on how Interface since 1994 has
reorganized, reoriented, and is still in the process of reinventing
itself. Evolving from a large, corporate 20th century industrial
structure Anderson describes in graphic detail as well as in
dollars and sense, how Interface set out to become a sustainable
prototype 21st century learning organization, blazing new paths to
sustainable design in the largest and smallest scales.
A particularly poignant story toward the end of the book relays the
planning for the 24th anniversary of Interface Inc., a global
gathering to convene in Maui, Hawaii, to kick off the 25th yearlong
celebration with focus on people, product, and place. The theme,
One World, One Family, A Celebration, was skillfully articulated
with an exercise called the Global Village, where more than 1,000
Interface associates from around the world—representing 34
countries and speaking eight languages—would represent the
entire population of the earth “to illustrate the distribution
of population, the inequitable distribution of resources and
resultant hunger, disease, ignorance, want, and mistreatment of
women.” Anderson describes the process, painful pitfalls, and
planning that had to occur within the environmental and cultural
contexts of Hawaii and the incredible transformations that affected
not only the corporate organization and direction but also the
personal lives of everyone involved, including the local indigenous
people of Hawaii, the hotel staff, employees, and residents. The
ripple effect of this single event illustrates the mind shifts
required to actually change course from our current "business as
usual" mentality and the incredible positive changes that result
from this mind shift.
Anderson’s Interface story is a real-life example making the
case that good business is good for design, good for the
environment, good for people. This case study hits all scales in
its applicability, from the personal to the global, clearly
illustrating that each small-scale, personal choice can, in fact,
have very large repercussions in the global context. This is a book
that empowers each of us to choose wisely at every opportunity and
to view each seemingly insurmountable task in our personal and
professional lives as another great opportunity for that critically
needed correction.
Marilyn M. Farmer, AIA, LEED AP, is principal of Habitat
Studio, Architecture & Planning and director of Green Building Pages, a Web resource guide
for sustainable building materials and design.
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