Brightening Our Corner Newsletter - May 2016

Foundation Awards Gray Notes Grants to The University of Georgia and Presidio Graduate School

As part of its annual grant making process, the Foundation recently awarded renewal Gray Notes Grants to The University of Georgia and the Presidio Graduate School. Gray Notes Grants were created in honor of the comments and questions Ray would write to his Interface associates on his gray notepad, encouraging them to solve the next great sustainability challenge his company faced.  We likewise hope to encourage and support our grantees in solving particular sustainability problems that our society currently faces.  Read more.

RayDay is September 25th

You are invited to join us for the 4th annual RayDay celebration, Sunday, September 25th, 3-7 p.m. at Serenbe in Chattahoochee Hills, Georgia. RayDay is an annual celebration of the life and legacy of Ray C. Anderson, hosted by the Ray C. Anderson Foundation. RayDay was inspired by Ray’s tireless efforts to make this world a better place for Tomorrow’s Child.  Click here to view a video about RayDay.  Click here to register for this year’s free event.

Remarkable Work at Georgia Tech's Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business

Great things are happening at the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business at Georgia Tech.  Early this year, they helped kick off the Serve-Learn-Sustain program, and in February, a team from the Scheller College of Business won 3rd Place in a National Net Impact Case Competition.

Watch videos here, featuring the Center’s Founding Faculty Director, Beril Toktay, talking about how the Center is carrying on Ray Anderson’s legacy and how the Serve-Learn-Sustain program has taken shape at Georgia Tech. 

The Ray is a Finalist in Katerva Awards

The Ray is proud to be a 2015 Finalist in the Transportation Category for the Katerva Awards.  The Ray was chosen from more than 3,500 ideas submitted in 10 categories in this prestigious global competition.  Read more.

Ray of Hope Prize to be Awarded at Bioneers

The deadline for design team entries has just closed for the 2nd Biomimicry Global Design Challenge, and finalists from last year’s challenge are nearing the end of the Accelerator Phase that will conclude with the announcement of the inaugural $100,000 Ray C. Anderson Ray of Hope Prize. The prize will be awarded on Saturday, October 22, 2016 at the National Bioneers Conference.  Read more about the finalists and check out the new video that highlights their projects.

Foundation Sponsors "Talk with Green Guy" Show

The Ray C. Anderson Foundation is the new sponsor of “Talk with Green Guy,” a rapidly growing weekly show hosted by Eric Moncrief on WGST 640 AM, which airs locally Sunday mornings at 9:00 a.m. Eastern with podcasts also available.

The show first aired in March 2014 and continues to gain traction by increasing its reach through syndicated terrestrial and satellite radio stations, and with digitally distributed podcasts coming soon through the Green is Good Media Network, iTunes and Google.

Click here to listen to the April 24th interview with John A. Lanier of the Ray C. Anderson Foundation and Allie Kelly of The Ray.

Michael Molitor is Named Senior Fellow

“The market undervalues sustainable business practices as they are evaluated by a flawed model of both growth and prosperity.” It’s a quote that sounds like it could have come directly from Ray Anderson, but instead, it comes from Michael Molitor, an academic and consultant who has recently been named a Senior Fellow of the Ray C. Anderson Foundation. Read more about Michael’s recent appointment. Read his recent article from Institutional Investor here.

Ecocentricity Blog

Urgency. Not panic, but a healthy sense of urgency. That’s what we need.  Remember a couple of posts back when I talked about the linkages between food waste and climate change? I wrote in that post that everything we can do to reverse climate change, we should do. I also wrote that I was going to say that a lot more often.  So here is why I’m going to make this idea a common refrain – we need a sense of urgency when it comes to climate change. Read more.

Note:  Ecocentricity is available by weekly subscription and can be delivered to your e-mail box automatically every Wednesday.  When you click through for the full blog story, enter your information in the orange box in the right column to subscribe.

In the Spotlight

The Ray C. Anderson Foundation is pleased to announce that Foundation Trustee, James A. Lanier, Jr. will now be taking a more active role in Foundation projects, as he celebrates his recent retirement from Interface, Inc. Read more.

John A. Lanier, Executive Director of the Ray C. Anderson Foundation, has been elected Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors for Southface. John joined the Southface board in 2014 and has been active on the Board Development and Executive Director Search Committees.  Southface is the Southeast's nonprofit leader in the promotion of sustainable homes, workplaces and communities through education, research, advocacy and technical assistance.

Congratulations to Advisory Board Members Janine Benyus and Bob Fox for being elected to the U.S. Green Building Council Board of Directors.