Sustainable Growth - Interface, Inc.

"This is the first machine of its kind anywhere in the world," says Jim Harley, 39, the vice president of manufacturing at Bentley Mills. Compared with the boil-and-bake method - which, for the time being, Bentley Mills will continue to use at least partially - "this system uses 10% of the energy," says Harley. "Or less. At half the cost. And with this system, there is no wastewater or dye going into the sewer." And this system could run on solar panels.

The most visible step toward the kind of cyclic, sustainable company that Anderson envisions was taken at Interface's Guilford of Maine division. Guilford specializes in making the fabric that upholsters cubicles. Using fabric made from polyester fiber, which is delivered in 600-pound bales from a supplier, Interface upholsters half the office cubicles in the country.

"We've always used virgin polyester fiber," says Paul Paydos, 46, Guilford's vice president of technical services. But Guilford decided to produce cubicle fabric from recycled polyester - which had to be indistinguishable from the virgin polyester fabric in quality and price. It took about a year to make the change.

With the bargaining muscle that comes with making 15 million running yards of fabric a year, Guilford partnered with a South Carolina soda-bottle-recycling outfit to supply the plant with recycled polyester fiber that is chemically identical to the virgin product. Last June, Guilford looms started using the recycled polyester; by the end of the year, all the cubicle fabric was woven from old soda bottles.

Now Guilford is working with suppliers on an even more advanced step. "Our goal is to throw discarded cubicle fabric back in the smoking cauldron," Paydos says, "and have new polyester raw material come out."

Planting the New Economy

Ray Berard is a senior vice president in interface's R&D division, overseeing a dozen efforts to design carpet and fabric that can be pulled apart and turned into carpet again. But for Berard, a 60-year-old with a PhD in physical chemistry, who has worked at Celanese Corp. and Titleist & FootJoy Worldwide, one the most exciting projects involves all-natural commercial carpet.

"It's made of hemp," Berard says, "backed with natural fiber, using natural dyes. It looks good, and it feels good." To make the point, he displays a square sample located behind his desk. "And it has wicked strength," he says. Hemp "grows so fast, it keeps the weeds out. You don't need pesticides or herbicides. And when you're done with the carpet, you can take it, compost it completely, and use it to fertilize the next crop of hemp."

The only problem: Growing industrial hemp in the United States is illegal, because of its genetic relation to marijuana. For now, Berard is looking to Canada and Asia for supplies of hemp - he's already bought the harvest from 150 acres - and he hopes to start offering commercial hemp carpet later this year.

Berard's projects are part of the new world that Anderson envisions. They represent a radical leap from the way business is done now - involving different relationships and different ways of thinking about suppliers, customers, products, garbage, and raw material. But as Interface is proving every day, that world is very much within reach: Lease carpet instead of selling it - progress begins with an idea just that simple.

The human economy doesn't have to be the only one on Earth that generates garbage. Cyclic capitalism - a form of business that refreshes itself and the world around it - would fire the imaginations of those who make the current, more primitive capitalism thrive. And as Anderson says, "It's the right thing to do."

Charles Fishman cnfish@mindspring.com is a Fast Company contributing editor. You can visit Interface Inc. on the Web at http://www.ifsia.com