Release date: May 14, 2007
Contact: Beverly Cox Clark at 404-712-8780 or beverly.clark@emory.edu

Business Leader, Pioneering Environmentalist Ray Anderson to Receive Honorary Degree

Environmental sustainability advocate and entrepreneur Ray C. Anderson will receive an honorary doctor of science degree during Emory University's 162nd commencement ceremony Monday, May 14. Anderson will be presented for his degree by Goizueta Business School Dean Lawrence M. Benveniste.

Anderson is the founder and chairman of Interface Inc., an Atlanta-based floor coverings company that produced the first free-lay carpet tiles in America. An honors graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology, Anderson built his business into the world’s largest producer of commercial floor coverings and interior finishes with sales in 110 countries. Most significantly, Anderson has led the industry in redesigning processes and products, pioneering new technologies, and reducing or eliminating waste and harmful emissions while increasing the use of renewable materials and sources of energy.

Anderson has been lauded for his innovative environmental efforts by government, environmental and business groups. In 2006 he received the inaugural Millennium Award from Global Green, presented by Mikhail Gorbachev, and he won recognition from Forbes Magazine and Ernst & Young, which named him Entrepreneur of the Year. He received the George and Cynthia Mitchell International Prize for Sustainable Development in 2001, and Sustainablebusiness.com named Interface one of the "Companies Changing the World" in 2006. Anderson serves on the boards of the Georgia Conservancy, the Ida Cason Callaway Foundation, the Rocky Mountain Institute, the ASID Foundation and Emory’s Center for Ethics. He is a former member of the Emory Board of Visitors.

In 1997 Anderson described his vision for his company, then nearly a quarter-century old: “If we’re successful, we’ll spend the rest of our days harvesting yester-year’s carpets and other

petrochemically derived products, and recycling them into new materials; and converting sunlight into energy; with zero scrap going to the landfill and zero emissions into the ecosystem. And we’ll be doing well . . . very well . . . by doing good. That’s the vision.” Anderson’s vision for Interface stands true today as its mission is to eliminate any negative impact it has on the environment by the year 2020.

Emory University is one of the nation's leading private research universities and a member of the Association of American Universities. Known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate college of arts and sciences, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities, Emory is ranked as one of the country's top 20 national universities by U.S. News & World Report. In addition to its nine schools, the university encompasses The Carter Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, the state's largest and most comprehensive health care system.

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