Join Us on the Journey
At Interface, Ray C. Anderson traveled a path he never imagined, all because he had the courage to ask, ‘What if?’ That question, and the answers to which it led, changed the world, igniting a global movement toward sustainable business practice and proving that a better way is possible. The Ray is the next leap in that journey, born of the same question.
Highways connect our communities, but they also create critical problems and divisions. They disrupt ecosystems and habitats by disconnecting and removing local flora and fauna. At an increasing rate, they threaten human lives as well. Since 2011, the US has seen a 5.3% rise in roadway fatalities.
In July 2014, the State of Georgia honored Ray’s legacy by renaming the stretch of I-85 that extends from exit 2 to 18 in West Georgia as the Ray C. Anderson Memorial Highway.
In the year that followed, the Ray C. Anderson Foundation created The Ray as an independent nonprofit, empowering it to catalyze this corridor into a global model for regenerative transportation. Between 2015 and 2017, the Foundation granted approximately $2.5 million in funding to pursue this work. In January 2018 the Ray C. Anderson Foundation granted an additional $2 million over a two-year period to The Ray.
The Ray is transforming this road and its surrounding acres, serving as a global model for future transportation.
The journey began in 2015 with a Georgia Conservancy Blueprints for Successful Communities study funded by the Ray C. Anderson Foundation and Interface.
Mobilizing the national momentum at the end of 2022, The Ray saw the Inflation Reduction Act as a pivotal opportunity to expand its private-public-philanthropic partnerships (P4) and become the frontrunner for executing innovative net-zero transportation projects at scale. Looking back at their accomplishments a year later, they became the leading nonprofit in the industry with more than 55 strategic partnerships initiating projects across America.
Working in collaboration with many state Department of Transportation (DOT) agencies, they have proven efficiency in implementing turnkey installation to unlock the future of sustainable infrastructure. In 2023, The Ray implemented a regional staff strategy to accelerate net-zero transportation utilizing a generous grant from the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation to make renewable energy and electrification accessible and more affordable nationwide.