Ray Anderson

There’s no shortage of CEOs who will tell you–through their publicists–how green they are, even though it’s often more image than reality. Ray Anderson was different. Founder of the carpetmaker Interface, Anderson had a road-to-Damascus moment in 1994 when he read The Ecology of Commerce by environmentalist Paul Hawken. He made his company truly sustainable, ensuring that it would take no more from the earth than it returned. Late in life, Anderson, who died Aug. 8 at 77, became an advocate for green business. “We have a choice to make during our brief visit to this beautiful blue and green living planet: to hurt it or help it,” he said at the TED conference in 2009. “It’s your call.” Anderson made his.