Writer/Director Nathan Havey first encountered the Interface story in Ray Anderson’s book Confessions of a Radical Industrialist in 2010.  That’s why, when staging a storytelling event about business purpose in Atlanta, his goal was to find a story from Interface.  The storyteller that came forward was Erin Meezan, Chief Sustainability Officer.

On his first call with Erin, Nathan was so nervous to meet Ray’s lead sustainability person that his hands were sweaty, his heart pounding, and mouth dry.  He felt like he was talking to Oprah.  Erin graciously accepted the invitation to tell her story and subsequently Nathan learned much about what had happened at Interface since the publication of Ray’s last book.  Soon after, Erin took the stage alongside five other storytellers, and video from that night is featured in the film.

Another storytelling event in Atlanta, co-hosted by the local chapter of Conscious Capitalism, introduced Nathan to Jim Hartzfeld, the person who asked Ray to give the speech that set the whole journey in motion.  Between Jim and Erin’s reflections, Nathan saw a clear story-arc that could make a great movie.  Once he saw it, he couldn’t let it go.  During years of corporate training, Nathan was shocked at how few people had heard of Interface and the critical roadmap it had created for how humanity can execute a global sustainability transformation – and do it profitably.  It was time to change that…

To date, Beyond Zero has been seen by many hundreds of thousands of current and aspiring business leaders, designers, architects, engineers, inventors, industrialists, entrepreneurs and visionaries of all stripes.  Global demand has necessitated subtitling the film in 14 languages and counting.  It has been used by many of the worlds largest companies (and many, many more smaller ones) to ignite the imagination and innovative potential of their teams.

Roughly 300 educators at roughly as many colleges and universities around the world (and counting) are using Beyond Zero to inspire and train students in a wide variety of fields to “abandon the comfort of the status quo,” and decline the false tradeoff between profit and sustainability.

The film has created a global network of change leaders committed to creating a world that works for everyone with no one and nothing left out.  If you are one of them, we can’t wait to get to know you.