Ray Anderson gave a profound and powerful talk about his decades-deep commitment to sustainable ways of doing business through his carpet company Interface — culminating in the Mission Zero plan.

During the talk he read a poem written by one of his employees, Glenn Thomas, after Glenn heard Ray talk. Having received a number of emails asking for the text of that poem, here it is:

Tomorrow’s Child
© Glenn Thomas
Without a name; an unseen face
and knowing not your time nor place
Tomorrow’s Child, though yet unborn,
I met you first last Tuesday morn.

A wise friend introduced us two,
and through his sobering point of view
I saw a day that you would see;
a day for you, but not for me

Knowing you has changed my thinking,
for I never had an inkling
That perhaps the things I do
might someday, somehow, threaten you

Tomorrow’s Child, my daughter-son
I’m afraid I’ve just begun
To think of you and of your good,
Though always having known I should.

Begin I will to weigh the cost
of what I squander; what is lost
If ever I forget that you
will someday come to live here too.

Photo: TED / James Duncan Davidson