Since graduating from The Georgia Institute of Technology as an industrial engineer, Ray Anderson has quietly gone about fostering an entrepreneurial spirit that has resulted in his building one of the world's largest interior furnishings companies. He and his company have revolutionized the carpet and floorcovering industry. Ray learned the carpet trade through over 14 years of experience at various positions at Deering-Milliken and Callaway Mills, and in 1973, set about founding a company to produce the first free-lay carpet tiles in America. He developed a partnership with Britain's Carpets International Pic. that year, set up operations in LaGrange, Georgia, took over Carpets International 10 years later, and today leads the world's largest producer of commercial floorcoverings, Interface, Inc. Ray has embarked on a mission to make Interface a sustainable corporation by leading a worldwide effort to reduce waste and pioneering the processes of sustainable development. Because the commitment Interface has made is so unique, both in terms of the industry and business in general, the environmental community has embraced the company and lauded its efforts. Ray was named co-chairman of the President's Council on Sustainable Development in 1997, and received the inaugural Millennium Award from Global Green, presented by Mikhail Gorbachev in September 1996.

Anthony D. Cortese, Sc.D, is a founding member and Chair of The Natural Step and President of Second Nature, a non-profit organization in Boston, Massachusetts dedicated to making environmentally just and sustainable action central to learning and practice in education at all levels. From 1984 to 1993, Dr. Cortese directed the Center for Environmental Management at Tufts University. In 1989 he became the first dean of Environmental Programs where he developed and coordinated thirteen university-wide environmental programs. He was the Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, and worked for the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Public Health Service. Dr. Cortese serves as a member of several boards of directors and advisory committees including the Consortium for Environmental Education in Medicine and the Center for Environmental Education. He was formerly a member of Dow Chemical Company's corporate environmental advisory council and a member of the board of directors of the Management Institute for Environment and Business and the Environmental Business Council of New England. He has a BS and MS in Environmental Engineering from Tufts University and a Sc.D. in Environmental Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Cortese has been a consultant to UNEP, a member of the Clinton-Gore transition team, the EPA Science Advisory board and the President's Council on Sustainable Development's Education Task Force. Dr. Cortese has received several leadership awards in environmental protection and public health and, he was recently elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Ms. Dillon-Ridgley brings with her an exceptional global perspective and years of experience working on issues related to sustainable development, population, gender, environmental justice, and human rights. She represents the Oxford Commission on Sustainable Consumption and the World Young Women's Christian Association, as well as serving the board of Interface, Inc. and as a Trustee of Wallace Global Fund. Ms. Dillon-Ridgley is a noted international speaker, has served on numerous U.S. delegations during the last decade, and is frequently asked by the UN to chair special meetings.

Matt was a Principal at Montgomery Securities (now Bank of America Securities) and at Robertson Stephens. He co-founded a growth equity limited partnership and founded and serves as the Executive Director of a small charitable foundation focused on social and environmental sustainability. Matt's primary occupation is as the Chief Executive Officer of Verdant Power, a sustainable energy company. Verdant Power produces electrical and mechanical energy in an environmentally benign way from free-flowing (no dams or impoundments) water currents. Matt's personal and professional interests are directed towards a broad definition of sustainability, and his efforts are focused on supporting the most efficacious organizations in this field. Matt has a bachelor's degree from Duke University, and he has earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Throughout her adult life, Dane Nichols has been a founder and supporter of forward thinking educational, humanitarian and environmental causes. A leader and contributor, she has maximized her position and resources to create positive changes locally, nationally, and internationally. She is most proud of her work with The Natural Step where she has served as Chairperson from 1998 to 2002 and remains on the Board of Directors.

Ms. Nichols spent fifteen years overseas, in the United States Foreign Service, fostering and managing relationships with key international figures in an effort to enhance the missions of the U.S. embassy, US Interests Section and US consulate wherever she served. Stationed with her family in Brazil, Belgium, Havana, Cuba and Paraguay, she moved successfully and comfortably among key players in the foreign policy and cultural arenas in all four countries and speaks Portuguese, French and Spanish. During her time abroad, Dane achieved many successes. In 1979, she co-founded Le Musee des Enfants in Brussels, the first children’s museum in Europe. Working collaboratively with The Nature Conservancy and Fundacion Moises Bertoni in Paraguay, she successfully lobbied and supported the effort to create the United Nations Mbaracayu International Bio-Reserve, a 95,000-hectare sub-tropical Atlantic Rainforest. She is currently a board member for Fundacion Mbaracayu, which works to protect and expand the territory.

Her accomplishments at home in the United States include; participation and leadership in the establishment of The Lab School of Washington, a leader in the field of teaching learning disabled children. As Executive Director of the US Committee for Le Memorial museum, she worked during the mid-eighties, with French historians, museum designers and film-makers to help create a large museum and study center of the Second World War, in Caen, Normandy, France. She also served on the board of the Maryland/DC Chapter of The Nature Conservancy for six years from 1991-1997. She has acted as an independent consultant for The National Journal – Government Research Corporation and Glorious Foods. She has also worked as a researcher for Newsweek magazine. Ms. Nichols is a founding member of Rachel’s Network, a group of women philanthropists supporting collective action on conservation and environmental issues. She is also Vice Chairman of the board of Island Press – Center for Resource Economics, a publishing house for environmental information.

Sally Ranney is an internationally recognized wildland and natural resource conservation specialist. She is Co-Founder and President Emeritus of the national non-profit American Wildlands. She is President of Rising Wolf International, a natural resource and sustainable development consulting company, serves as Vice-President of Jaguar Yerva Corporation, an herbal import company, and is the Senior Advisor for the Human Potential Television Network. She also owns Natural Ideas, Inc. a company specializing in her original greeting cards. Ms. Ranney is Vice-President of the Island Foundation, a Director of the Gallmann Memorial Foundation (USA/Kenya), and the host of a pilot television program, "The True Nature of Things". She serves on the Executive Committee of the 'One World Earth Reserve Project' in Argentina, and is a Co-Founder of the World Congress on Eco-Tourism. An international consultant on strategic management of natural systems, wildlands, and wildlife as well as eco-tourism, Ms. Ranney has provided her expertise in Kenya, Argentina, Zimbabwe, Papa New Guinea, China, and Canada as well as advised several U.S. presidents and presidential candidates. Ms. Ranney holds a BA and an MA and has a diverse educational background which includes geology, education, fine arts, business, forestry and environmental studies. She received an R. K. Mellon Fellowship for post-graduate studies at Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and School of Organizational Management. She is the 1995 recipient of the Horace Albright Award and has been awarded the International Wildlife Federation's Meritorius Conservation Award. She has published recent articles including, "Heroines and Hierarchy, Female Leadership in the Environmental Movement", and "Geography of Spirit". She has two books in progress, The Natural God and The Bear Throw.

Karl-Henrik Robèrt, M.D., Ph.D., is one of Sweden's foremost cancer scientists who, in 1989, initiated an environmental organization called "The Natural Step". His research on damaged human cells provided a platform for his interest in environmental questions. With Dr. John Holmberg, he developed the "system conditions" for ecological sustainability. Dr. Robèrt mobilized twenty independent professional networks to initiate and support the framework of The Natural Step, while producing educational materials and distributing them to every household and school in Sweden. Major Swedish companies such as IKEA, Electrolux, the ICA supermarket chain, and a large number of other business corporations, as well as the majority of Swedish municipalities, including Stockholm, have begun to incorporate the system conditions into their business practices. Dr. Robèrt received his M.D. in 1975, his Ph.D. in 1979 and in 1982 became a Professor of Internal Medicine. In 1984, he won the Swedish Hematological Association Research Award. From 1985-1993 he headed the Division of Clinical Hematology and Oncology and the Department of Medicine at the Huddinge Hospital. He was the Editor of Reviews in Oncology from 1987-1993. While heading a research laboratory at the Karolinska Institute, the leading cancer Research Institute in Sweden, Dr. Robèrt authored numerous scientific publications concerning leukemia, lymphoma, lung cancer and their clinical implications. He has lectured at international conferences such as the World Cancer Conference, 1982, the International Society of Oncodevelopment Biology and Medicine Conference, 1983, the Nobel Symposium, 1985, ECCO, 1986, and the 4th International Symposium on Therapy of Acute Leukemia Research, 1987. In 1995, Dr. Robèrt was appointed Professor of Resource Theory at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He has written many books and articles on the environment and sustainability, which encourage an understanding of the linkage between ecology and economy. His publications include the following: Det Naturliga Steget- a booklet distributed to all households and schools in Sweden in 1989, "From the Big Bang to Sustainable Societies" with K-E Eriksson in Reviews in Oncology, and "Socio-ecological principles for sustainability" , with John Holmberg and K-E Eriksson, published in Practical Applications of Ecological Economics.

Spend enough time with Sarah and you're sure to hear a three-word mantra that is the essence of sustainability defined: people, planet and profit. The 3 P's, or the "triple bottom line", as Sarah and fellow environmental and sustainability leaders call it, is the key to achieving corporate sustainability. It is also the three-pronged approach that leads many of Sarah's decisions as leader of Nike's global environmental efforts. Sarah joined Nike in 1993 as the first-in-command at Nike Europe's start-up Consumer Insights department. Always an advocate for environmental progress and the benefits of business being involved in that process, she was asked to take on yet another newly formed role as European Manager for the Nike Environmental Action Team in late 1994. In May of 1995, she and her family left Europe for Beaverton, Oregon, where she now resides as a transplanted Brit with plenty of ideas for how the NEAT team can help Nike employees around the world chart their courses toward sustainability.

Myron Wick is a co-founder (1988) and managing director of McGettigan, Wick & Co., Inc., an investment banking firm based in San Francisco, California. From 1985 to 1988, Mr. Wick was Chief Operating Officer of California Biotechnology, Inc. (now Scios Nova, Inc.) in Mountain View, California. He is currently a Director of Modtech, Inc., Sonex Research, Inc. and is Chairman of the Board of StoryFirst Communications, Inc., the largest privately-owned television and radio broadcast company in Russia. From 1985 to 1996, Mr. Wick was the Chairman of the Board of Breakthrough For Youth, a non-profit organization dedicated to inner-city youth. He also served as a member of the Advisory Counsel for the Peace Corps from 1991 to 1993. He currently serves on the Board of The Hoffman Institute, The Natural Step and The Tanager Foundation. Mr. Wick received his BA degree from Yale University in 1965 and his MBA from the Harvard Business School in 1968.

Jin Zidell is an industrialist, philanthropist and environmentalist. He has been a principal in a number of businesses including scrap metal processing, steel forging/fabrication, film and television production, fish farming, real estate development and software development and marketing. In 1991, Jin and his wife Linda established a donor advised philanthropic fund at the Marin Community Foundation that focuses on environmental issues. Jin has served on the board and staff of numerous non-profits over the past 35 years. Along with being a board member of The Natural Step, US, Jin serves on the board of the Predator Project and the Earth Trust Foundation. Since 1979, Jin has been affiliated with Dia Rosatsu Zendo Kongo-JI, a Zen Buddhist Monastery. Jin Zidell received a BS from the University of Colorado School of Business in 1960