Harriet Anderson Langford of The Ray Tells Us About Doing Well By Doing Good
Reprinted from Startup.info
We talked to Harriet Anderson Langford of The Ray on how to drive the future and here is what she said about it.
First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times?
Harriet Anderson Langford: Thank you for asking. What is most important to me during this time is that my family and others stay healthy and safe. Our family has been incredibly fortunate to have the capability to live and work from our home, but I also want to make sure we are a part of the solution – not the problem. We have been very cautious and are strictly following the guidelines outlined by the CDC and health officials.
At The Ray (we consider our board and staff extended family), our team has been on the same page. They have been flexible and are a huge part of the reason our organization has continued to thrive this past year. We are all doing our best to support our neighbors and the greater good.
Tell us about you, your career, how you founded The Ray?
Harriet Anderson Langford: In the 1980s, my father, Ray C. Anderson, invested everything he had, including my sister and I’s college savings, into building his own business in our hometown of LaGrange, Georgia. Daddy’s hard work quickly grew Interface to a global leader that piloted modular carpet tiles in the U.S. However, at the height of the company’s success, he was posed with the question, “What is your company doing for the environment?” And his honest answer was…nothing.
This challenge changed the course of my dad’s life. He made it his mission to prove to other business leaders that doing good is good for business. He became the world’s first “green” CEO and pledged to take Interface net-zero and fully circular by 2020. Unfortunately, Daddy did not live to see the company accomplish this goal due to his premature passing in 2011, but his work didn’t stop at the end of his life.
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