KU News Release

World leader in sustainable development to speak March 26 at KU

Ray Anderson

LAWRENCE — Ray Anderson, one of the world’s leading environmental entrepreneurs, will address the importance of sustainability at a free public lecture hosted by the University of Kansas School of Business.

Anderson will speak and take questions at the 2008 William S. Sutton Lecture at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 26, at Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union.

Anderson built one of the world’s largest interior furnishings companies, Interface, which revolutionized the commercial floor-covering industry. Anderson’s lecture, titled “Sustainability in Action,” will discuss his worldwide effort to pioneer the process of sustainable business development.

Anderson thinks that if Interface, a petro-intensive company, can adopt sustainable tactics in every dimension, it will influence other companies and never need to take another drop of oil from the Earth. Interface hopes to become the first fully sustainable company by 2020.

Time International named Anderson one of its “Heroes for the Environment” in 2007. He appeared in the 2004 Canadian documentary “The Corporation” and was co-chairman of President Clinton’s Council on Sustainable Development. Anderson chronicled his journey as an environmental entrepreneur in his book “Mid Course Correction.”

The Sutton lecture, sponsored by KU’s International Center for Ethics in Business and School of Business, is made possible by a gift in 1993 from Betsey G. Sutton in memory of her husband, Walter Sutton.

The International Center for Ethics in Business is a cooperative effort by the School of Business and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The center aims to promote individual and corporate integrity in United States and international business through research, service and training on ethical principles and behavior. Co-directors are Douglas R. May, professor of business, and Richard T. DeGeorge, a University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy.

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