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Cradle To Cradle BOOK (McDonough&Braungart, 2002) PDF
Cradle To Cradle BOOK (McDonough&Braungart, 2002) PDF
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II I~ 15 17 16 l 4 12
To our families,
and to all of the children of
all species for all time
The world will not evolve past its current state of crisis by using the same
thinking that created the situation.
- A LBERT E INSTEIN
Wha t you people call your natural resources our people call our relatives.
- OREN LYONS , faith keeper of the Onondaga
Contents
lntr·oduc lion 3
This Book Is Not a Tree
Chapl<'t' One 17
A Question of Design
C ha plf'l' F'our 92
Waste Equals Food
Respect Diversity
Putting Eco-Effectiveness
into Practice
Noh·s 1!17
Atl asl. You have finally found the Li me to s ink into your fa vori te
a rmc ha ir, relax , a nd pick up a book. Your daughter uses a com-
pute r in the next room whil e th e baby crawls on th e carpe l a ncl
pla ys wit h a pil e of colorful pl astic toys . l t certa inl y feels , at this
mome nt , as if a ll is we ll. Could the re be a more compell ing pi c-
ture of pea ce, comfort, and safe ty?
Le t's take a c loser look. Firs t, that comforta ble c hai r you
a re s itting on. Did you know that the fabri c contai ns mutage nic
ma te rials, heavy meta ls, cla ngerous c he mica ls, and dyes tha t
a re often la he lecl haza rdous by regulators-except whe n they
are presente e! and sold to a cus tome r? As you s hift in your seat ,
particles of the fabri c abrade and a re ta ke n up by your nose,
mouth , a nd lungs, hazardous ma te ria ls a nd a ll. Were they on
th e me nu whe n you ord e red tha t c hair?
T ha t comput e r your c hild is us ing-d id you know that it.
cont a ins more tha n a th ousand di ffe re nt k inds of ma teria ls, in-
c lu d ing toxic gases, toxic meta ls (sueh as cadmium , lead, and
me rcury). ac ids, plas tics, c hlorinat ed a nd brominated s ub-
sta nces, a nd other a dditi ves? The dust from some print P.r· tnnP.r
ca rtridges has bee n found to conta in ni ckel, coba lt , and me r-
c ury, substa nces ha rmful to humans that you r ch ild may be in-
ha ling as you read. Is t.hi s sens ible? Is it nee essary? Obvious ly,
some of those thousa nJ mate ri al s a re essenti a l to the fun c tion -
ing of the compute r itse lf. Wha t will happen to the m whe n you r
fa mily outgrows th e compute r in a few years? You will ha ve lit-
3
CHAIJI. f: TO CRADLE
tie choice but to di spose of it, <tnd both its valuable and it haz-
ardous mate ri als will be throw n " away." You wanted to use a
computer, but somehow you have unwittingly become pa r1y to a
proeess of was te and destru ction.
But wait a min ute- you care about the e nviro nme nl. ln
fact, when you went shoppi ng fo r a ca rpel recent ly, you del iber-
ately chose one made from recycled pol yester soda boll les. Re-
cycled? Pe rhaps it would be more accurate to say downcycled.
Good intentions aside, your rug is made of things that we re
never designed with thi s furt her use in mind, and wrestling
the m into this form has required as muc h energy-and gener-
ated as muc h waste-as producing a new carpel. And a ll that
eff011 has onl y succeeded in postponing the usual fat e of prod-
ucts by a life cycle or two. The rug is still on its way to a land-
fill; it's just stopping off in your house e n rou te. Moreover, the
recycling process may have introduced even more harmful ad-
diti ves than a conventi onal product co ntains, and it mi ght be
off-gassing and abrading them into your home at a n even higher
rate.
The shoes you've kicked off on that ca rpet look innocuous
enough. But c hances a re, they were ma nufac tured in a develop-
ing country where oc-c upati onal health standards-regulations
that determin e how mu ch work ers ca n be ex posed lo (•ertain
chemicals- a re probably less stringe nt than in Western F:urope
or the Unit ed States, perha ps even nonexiste nt. The workers
who rnade them wea r masks tha t provide insuffrcie nt protection
aga inst th e dangerous fumes. How did you end up bringing
home social inequit y and feelings of guilt whe n all you wanted
was new foolwear"?
4
T i l l S UOOK IS ~OT A THEE
That plas tic raltle the baby is playing with- should she be
putting it in her mouth? Jf it's made of PVC plasti c, there's a
good cha nce it contai ns phtha la tes, known to cause li ver cancer
in a nimals (and s us pected to cause e ndocrine disruption),
a long with tox ic dyes, lubricants, a ntiox idants, a nd ultraviole t-
light sta bilizers . Why? What were the designers at the toy com-
pany thinking?
So much for trying to ma inta in a healthy e n vironme nt, or
e ven a hea lth y home. So muc h for peace, co mfort, a nd safety.
Some thing seems to be te rribly wrong with this pic ture.
Now look a t a nd feel t.he book in your hands .
This book is not a tree.
It is printed on a synthe tic " pape r" a nd bound into a book
format de veloped by innovative book pac kager Charles Mel-
che r of Me lc her Med ia. Unlike the paper with whi c h we a re
famili a r, it does not use a ny wood pulp or colton fiber but is
made from plasti c res ins a nd inorganic fillers. Thi s mate ria l is
not only wate rproof, extre mely durable, and (in ma ny localiti es)
recyc lable by conve nti onaJ means; it is a lso a prototype for th e
book as a " techni cal nutri e nt," that is, as a produc t that can be
broken down a nd c irc ul ated in finitel y in indus trial cycles-
made a nd re made as " paper" or other produc ts.
Th~ 1r~~. a mong th ~ fin~st of nature's creations, plays a
c ruc ial a nd multifaceted role in our interde pe nde nt ecosystem.
As s uch, it h as bee n a n impo rta nt mode l and me ta phor for our
thinking, as yo u will di scover. But a lso as s uc h, it is not a fitting
resource to use in prod ucing so humbl e and tra nsient a s ub-
stance as pape r. The use of a n alternative ma te rial expresses
our inte nti on to evol ve away from the use of wood fibe rs fo r pa-
5
CBADI.E TO CHH1Lt:
6
Till S ROO'-. I S :-l OT A T Rf. F
Bill recalls:
I was influe nced s trongly by ex perie nces I'd had abroad-first
in Japan, where I spent my early childhood. I reca ll a sense of
la nd a nd resources be ing scarce but a lso th e beauty of trad i-
ti ona l Japanese homes, with the ir pa per walls and dripping gar-
dens, their warm fut ons a nd s tea min g bath . I aJso remembe r
qu ilted winter garme nts and farmhouses wi th thi ck wa lls of clay
a nd straw tha t kl:'pt the interior warm in winter and cool in su m-
me r. Late r, in co ll ege, I accompanied a p1·ofessor of urban de-
s ign to Jorda n to develop housing for the Bedouin who were
settling in the Jordan Rive r valley. The re I encountered an even
greate r scarc ity of loca l resources-food, soil, energy, and es-
pec ially water-but I was aga in stru ck by how simple a nd e le -
gant good des ign cou ld be, a nd how s uited to loca le. The tents
of woven goat hai r the Bedouin had used as nomads drew hot
7
CHADL~ TO CllADLE
8
Til l ~ 1100~ IS \ OT \ T R EF
indoor air qual ity pruulc rns or mull iple chemi cal se nsitivity.
With liule or no resea rc h avai lab le, we turned to the manufac-
turers, who oft e n told us the information was proprietary a nd
gavt> us nothi ng beyond the vague safeguards in the material
safety data sheets ma ndated by law. We d id the best we could at
th e time. We used water-Lased paints. We taeked down carpet
instead of gluing it. We provided thirty cubic feet per minute of
fresh air per pe rson instead of fi ve. We had granite chec ked for
radon. We used wood that was sustainabl y harvested. We tried
to be less bad.
Most lead ing designe rs eschewed envi ronmental concerns.
Many environmentall y minded designe rs app li ed environmen-
tal "solu tions" in isolati on, lack ing new technology onto the
same old model or cornin g up wi th giant solar coll ec tors for
people to li ve in th at overheated in the summer. The resull ing
buildings were oft e n ugly and obtrusive, ami they we re often
not very effecti ve. li:ven as architects a nd ind ustrial designe rs
began to e mbrace recycled or susta inable materials, they til l
dealt primaril y with surfaces -with what looked good, what
was easy to get, what I hey could afford.
J hoped for more. '1\vo projects in pa rti cular inspired me to
think se ri ously a bout my design in tentions. In 1987 members
of the Jewish community in ew York a!<ked me to design a
proposal for a ll oloca ust me morial, a place where people could
reAecl. I visited Auschwitz a nd Birkenau to see what the worst
of hu man intenti ons could accomp lish: giant machines de-
signed to elirninatr huma n life. I realized that design is a ignal
of inte ntion. Wha t is the very best tha t designe rs ean intend, I
9
C K t\IJ L ~ TO C ti ,\OLI:
Michael's story:
I come from a famil y of lite ra ture a nd ph ilosophy schola rs, a nd
turn ed to chemi stry only out of sympathy for my hi gh schoo l
c he mis try teache r. (In the early 1970 s Germa ny was e ngaged in
political debate abou t the use of pesticides a nd othe r proble m-
a tic c he micals, so I was able to jus tify it to my famil y as a
mea ningful purs uit.) I s tudie d a t univers ities where I could
learn about e nvironme ntal c he mi stry a nd was especia ll y infiu-
e nced by Professor Friedheim Korte, who was ins trume nta l in
inventing "ecological c hemi stry." In 1978 I became one of the
founding me mbers of the Green Ac tion Future Party. This be-
came Ge rma ny's Green Party, a nd its primary goal wa~ ta king
care of th e environm enl.
Through my work with th e Green Party, I created a name
for myself a mong en vironme ntal ists . C reenpeace, whi ch a t th e
time was a group of activists with littl e formal bac kground in
sc ie nce or e nvironme ntal stud ies, as ked me to work with the m.
directed G reenpea ce's c he mistry de partment a nd helped the
10
Ti ll ~ IIOOK IS ~OT I TREF
11
C llAI)LE T O C llAD I. E
12
TH I~ 11 00~ I S N OT A TKt:f:
13
CHAIJLE TO CH,\IJLE
s hoes are actuall y a mixture of biol ogica l ma te rials (the leath er,
which is biodegradabl e) and technical ma te riRi s (th e c hromium
a nd other substances, whi c h have value for indus tries). Accord-
ing to c urrent methods of manufacture and disposal, neither
could be s uccessfully retrieved after the shoe was discarded.
From a material and eco logical s tandpoint, the design of the av-
e rage shoe cou ld be much more intell igenl. We di scussed the
idea of a sole coated with biodegradable mate rials, which could
be de tached aft er use. The rest of the s hoe could be made of
plas tics a nd polyme rs tha t were not ha rmful, and which could
be trul.y recyc led into new shoes .
Inc ine ra tor s moke drifted from nearby rooftops as we dis-
c ussed the fact that typical garbage, with its mixture of in -
dus trial a nd biologi cal ma te ria ls, was not designed for safe
burning. Instead of banning burning, we wonde red, why not
ma nufac ture certain produc ts and packaging tha t could be
safely burned a fter a c us tome r is fini s hed with th e m? We imag-
ined a world of indu stry tha t made c hildre n the standard for
safety. Wha t a bout des igns that, as Bill put it, "loved all the
c hildre n, of all spec ies, for all time"?
Trafftc was inc reasing on th e s treets below, a true ew
York traffic j am, with b laring horns, angry drivers, a nd inc reas -
ing di sruption. In the earl.y e ve ning light , we imagin ed a s ile nt
ca r tha t could run withou t. burning foss il fu e ls or e mitting nox-
ious fum es, a nd a c ity like a forest, coo l a nd qui et. Everywhere
we turned, we could see produc ts, packaging, buildings, trans-
portation , eve n whole c ities that we re poo rl y des igned . And we
co uld see th a t the conven ti ona l e nviro nme ntal approat: hes-
14
T ill ~ IIOOK I ~ ~OT A TKl~
15
CIIAIJ U : TU CIIAIJL~
16
C ha pter O nt'
A Question of Design
17
CH llli.E TO CRAili.E
()f course, the inJustrialis ts, e ngineers, invPn tors, and other
minds be hind th e Ind us trial Revolution never intended such
co nseque nces. In fad , the Industri al Bevo luti on as a whole was
not reall y des ignPd . It took s hape gradua ll y, as industria lis ts,
engin eers, and dPs igne rs tried to solve problems and to take
inunediate advantagC' of what they eo ns id<'rf'd to he opportun i-
18
A !)LE:iT I O N OF OF. S I C'I
19
CR JITl i. E TO CRADLE
20
A Q L f: S T I 0 N 0 f ' IJ f: S I G ~
21
CRAOLE TO CHAIJL I:
22
A QLE S TION OF DES I GN
23
C ll IIH f. TO C H AIJLE
goods for the masses, and they s till are today. Ford 's Ri ver
24
A QlF: ~ I'IO~ Of ll f " l t; ~
25
CHAO I.E TO CHAI)J. t;
26
A QUE S T I OX Of DE S I GN
Imagine what you would come upon today at a typi cal landfill:
old fumiture, uphols tery, carpets, televisions, clothing, shoes,
telephones, computers, complex products, and plas tic packag-
ing, as well as organic materials like diapers, paper, wood, and
food wastes. Most of these products were made from valuable
ma teri als that required e!Jort and expense to extract and make,
billions of dollars' wo rth of ma te rial assets. The biodegradable
materials suc h as food maller and paper ac tuall y have value
too-they could decompose and return biological nutri ents to
the soil. Unfortunately, all of these things are heaped in a land-
fill, whe re their value is wasted. They are the ultimate products
of an industrial system th at is designed on a linear, one -way
cradle-to-grave model. Resources a re extracted, sha ped into
products, sold, and eventua lly dis posed of in a "grave" of some
kind, usually a landfill or incinerator. You are probably familiar
with the end of this process because you, the customer, are re-
s ponsible for dea ling with its detritus. Think about it you may
be re fe rred to as a consumer, but the re is ve ry liule that you ac-
tually consume-some food, some li qui ds. Everything else is
designed for you to throw away when you are finished with it.
But where is "away"? Of course, "away" docs not really exist.
"Away" has gone away.
Cradle-to-grave des igns dominate modern manufacturing.
According to some accounts more th an 90 percent of materi -
als extrac ted to make durable goods in the United States be -
come waste almost immediately. Some times the product itself
scarcely lasts longer. It is ofte n cheaper to bu y a new version of
27
C ll Ill I 1: TO <.:I! I U I t.
28
A QUE ST I O\ OF llf: S I G~
29
CR ADLE T O C R AD LE
Brute Force
30
A QUE S TI O~ Ot' Dt: S I C'l
31
C H ,\DL E TO CllADLC
A Culture of Monoculture
32
Brute forc e a nd uni ve rsa l design a pproac hes to typi ca l de vel-
opment te nd to ove rwhelm (and ignore) natura l a nd c ultural di -
versity, resulting in less varie ty a nd grea te r homogene ity.
Cons id er the process of buil d ing a Lypi <'a l uni ve rsal ho use.
First builde rs sc ra pe a way everything o n th e s ite until they
re a ch a bed of cl a y or undi s turbed soil. Severa l machines the n
co me in and shape the c la y to a level s urface. Tre es a re fe lled ,
natura l flora a nd fauna a re destroyed or fri ghtened away, a nd
th e ge ne ric mini Mc Ma ns io n o r modul a r home rises with little
rega rd fo r th e na tura l e nviro nme nt around it- ways the sun
mi ght co me in to hea l the house during the winte r, whic h trees
mi ght protec t it from wind, heat, a nd cold , a nd how soil a nd wa-
te r hea lth can be preserved now and in the future. A two- inc h
carpe l of a fo re ign s pec ies of gra ss is pl aced ove r the rest of the
lot.
The ave rage la wn is an inte resting beas t: peo ple p la nt. it,
the n douse it with a rtific ia l fe rtili ze rs a nd da ngerous pesti c ides
to ma ke it grow a nd to keep it unifo rm- a ll so tha i th e y ca n
hae k a nd rno w wha t I hey e ncouraged to grow. And woe to I he
sma ll yell ow flo wer tha i rea rs it s head!
Rath e r th a n be ing des ig ne d a round a na tura l and c ultura l
la nd scape, most mode rn urba n a reas simply g row, as has ofte n
been sa id, li ke a <'a ncer, sprea ding more a nd mo re of the m-
se lve s, eradicating the li ving e nviro nme nt in th e p rocess. b la n-
keting the na tura l la nd :;ca pe with laye rs of as pha ll a nd
co ne re te.
Con vl'n l ion a l ag ri c ullure lf' nd s lo wo rk a lon g these sa nw
li nes. Th e goal of a m id western comnlPre ia l c·orn OfJPntlion is lo
produ ce a s muc h corn as poss ibl e with the leas t amo unt of trou -
33
CllADLt: TO CHADI.E
ble, time, and expense-the Indus tria l Revolu tion's first des ign
goal of maximum efficiency. Mos t conventional operati ons to-
day focus on highly specialized, hybridized, a nd perhaps genet-
ir:a lly morlifi P.d spN: iP.s of r.orn. T hey develop a monocultural
landscape that appears to s upport only one partic ular crop
that's likely not even a true s pecies but some over-hybridi zed
cultivar. Planters remove other s pec ies of pla nt life us ing
tillage, which leads to mass ive soil eros ion from wind and wa-
ter, or no-till farming, which requires mass ive application s of
herbi cide. Ancient s tra ins of corn are lost because their output
does not meet the demands of modern commerce.
On the swface, these s trategies seem reasonable to mod-
ern industry and even to "consumers," but they ha rbor both un-
derlying and overlying problems. E le ments that are re moved
from the ecosys tem to make the operation yie ld more grain
more quickly (that is, to make it more efficient) would otherwise
actually provide benefits to farm ing. The plants removed by
tillage, for example, could have helped to pre ve nt erosion and
flooding and to s tabilize and rebuild soi l. They would have pro-
vided hab itat for insects and birds, some of them natura l ene-
mies of crop pests. Now, as pests grow res ista nt to pestic ide,
their numbers increase because th e ir natura l enemi es have
been wiped out.
Pesticides, as typica lly designed, are a perennial cost both
to fanne rs and to the environment and represent a less than
mindful use of c hemi cal brute force. Although chemical com-
panies warn fanners to be careful wi th pes ti c ides, they benefit
when more of them are sold. In othe r words, the companies are
unintentionally in vested in profligacy with-even th e mi shan-
34
A Q U E S TI O'\ Of DI: S I G
35
CI!AD J.t: TO CI!AD I. E
An inte res ting fa cl: the 1991 Exxon Valdez oil spill actua ll y in-
c reased Alaska 's gross domPsli (~ proclu~l. ThP Prin ce Willi a m
Sound a rea was regis tered as economi cally more prosperous
because so many peopl e we re trying lo clean up the s pill.
Resta urants, hote ls , shops, gas s ta ti ons, a nd stores all experi-
e nced a n upward blip in economic excha nge.
Th e GOP takes only one measure of progress into acco unt:
ac ti vity. Econom ic ac ti vity. But wha t sens ible pe rson would call
th e effects of a n oil s pill progress? By some accounts, the
Valdez acc ide nt led to the dea th of more wildlife tha n a ny othe r
human-engineered e nvironme nta l d isaste r in U.S. hi story. Ac-
cord ing to a 1999 gove rnme nt report, only two of th e twe nt y-
three a nimal s pecies allecled by the s pill recove red . Its impac t
on fish a nu wildlife continues today with tumors, genet ic da m-
age, a nd other e ffec ts . The s pill led to losses of c ultural wea lth,
including fi ve s tate pa rb, four s la te c riti ca l-ha bita t areas, a nd
a stale ga me sa nc tuary. Importa nt hab it ats fo r fish s pawning
a nd rea ring were darnaged. whic h may have led to th e 1993
dec ima tion of the Prince Willi a m Sound's Pacific he rrin g popu -
la ti on (pe rhaps because of a viral in fection due to oil exposure).
The spill loo k a s ignifica nt toll on fishermen's income, not to
me ntion the less measurab le e ffec ts on mora le and emotional
health.
The GOP as a measure of progress e me rged during a n e ra
wh en natura l resources s till seemed unlimited a nd "quality of
life" mean! hi gh eco nomi c s ta ndal'ds of living. But if pros pe rit y
is j udged onl y by increased economic activity, then car acc1-
36
,\ Q U F. S TJ OI\' OF DE S I C~
Crude Products
The des ign int enti on behind th e c u rre nt indus tria l infrastruc-
ture is to ma ke a n allrac ti ve product tha t is affordable, meets
regula ti ons, pe rforms well e nough, and las ts long e nough to
meet marke t expectat ions. Such a product fulfills the ma nufac-
ture r's desires a nd some of the customers' expec ta tions as welL
But from our pers pective, produ c ts tha t are not des igned pa rti c-
ula rl y for huma n a nd ecologica l health are uninte lli ge nt a nd in-
elega nt- wha t we ca ll crude products.
For example, the average mass-produced pi ece of poly-
ester clothing and a typical wate r bottle both contain antimony,
a tox ic heavy metal known to ca use ca ncer under certain c ir-
c umstances. Le t's put as ide for the mom ent the issues of
whe ther thi s s ubsta nce re presents a s pec ific danger to the use r.
Th e questi on we wo uld pose as des igners is: Why is it the re? Is
37
Cl\AD LE TO Cl\ADI.~
38
A Q UI:S TIO~ O F' llf:S I GN
39
CRA DL E T O CRA D LE
40
1\ QUES TI ON o t· IH :S I GN
sure to heavy meta ls and othe r pathoge ns, and so on. The im-
mune system is capable of hand li ng a certa in amount of s tress.
Si mpli sti cally speaking, you could picture those stressors as
balls your immune sys tem is juggling. Ordinarily, the juggler is
skillful e nough to keep those balls in the air. That is, the im-
mune system catches a nd destroys those len or twelve cells.
But the more ba lls in the a ir- the more the body is besieged by
all kind s of environmental toxins, for example- the greater the
probability that it will drop the ball, tha t a replicating cell wi ll
make a mis take. It would be very hard to say which molecule or
factor was the one that pushed a person's system over the edge.
But why not re move negative stressors, especially since people
don't want or need them?
Some industri al chemicals produce a second effec t, more
insidious than causing s tress: they weaken the immune system .
This is li ke tying one of the juggler's ha nds behind his back,
which ma kes it mu ch harder for him to catch the cancer cells
before they cause problems. The deadliest c he micals both de-
s troy the immune syste m and damage cells. Now you have a
one- ha nded juggler stru ggling to keep an in creasing numbe r of
balls in the air. Wi ll he continue to pe1form with accu racy and
grace? Why take the ris k that he won't? Why not look for
opportuniti es to strengthen the immune system, not challenge it?
We've foc used on cance r here, but these compounds may
have othe r e ffects that sc ience has yet t.o d iscove r. Consider e n-
docrine d is rupters, whi ch were unheard of a decade ago but are
now known to be among the most damaging c hemical corn-
pounds for living organis ms. Of the approximately e ighty thou-
sand defined chemical s ubs tances and technical mixes that are
41
C RADLE T O C R A DLE
42
A Q~t: S TION or DE S I G N
43
CRAD L E TO CRADL. E
Once you understand the destru ction taking place, unless you
do something to change it, even if you never intended to cause
such destru ction, you become involved in a s trategy of tragedy.
You can continue to be e ngaged in tha t stra tegy of traged y, or
you ca n design and implement a strategy of change.
Perhaps you imagine that a viable strategy (or change al-
read y ex ists. Aren't a number of "green," "environmental ,"
and "eco-eHicient" movements already afoot? The next chapter
ta kes a closer look at th ese movements and the solutions they
offe r.
44
Chaptet· Two
45
CHA()Lf: TO CH o\f)l.t:
46
111 1 \ IHI~G ''Lt: ~S BH>" I~ ~0 (,OO D
47
C II A I)L E TO C R A O I. f.
48
W il Y 13E I .'<G " L" SS [l ,\IJ" I S NO G OOU
capita consumption."
The association of growth with negati ve consequences has
become a majo r theme of environmentalists in th e modern age.
In 1972, be tween the publicati on of the Ehrlichs' firs t and sec-
ond warnings, Donell a and Dennis Meadows a nd t.h e Club of
Rome (a group of inte rnational bus iness, state, and scientific
leaders) publis hed another serious warning, The Limits to
Growth. The authors noted that resources were plummeting due
to population growth and destructi ve industry and concluded ,
" If the present growth trends in world population, indus trializa-
tion, pollution, food produc tion, and resource depletion con-
tinue uncha nged, th e limits to growth on thi s planet will be
reac hed sometime within the nex t one hundred years. The mos t
probable result will be a sudden and uncontroll ab le decline in
both population and industri al capac ity." Twe nty yea rs later a
follow-up, Beyond the Limits, concluded with more warnings:
" Minimize th e use of nonrenewable resou rces." "Prevent the
erosion of renewable resources." "Use all resources wi th max i-
mum effi ciency." "Slow and eventually s lop exponenti al growth
of populati on and ph ys ical capita l."
In 1973 Fritz Schumacher's Snwll l.s Beautiful: Economics
as If People Mattered ta ckl ed the issue of growth from a philo-
sophi cal vantage poi nt. "The idea of unlimited econom ic
growth ," he wrote, "more and more until everybod y is saturated
with wealth, needs to be seriously questi oned." In add iti on to
49
CKAOL~ TO CRADLE
50
W il Y llf.I~G "I. F.SS BAD" IS '10 GOOD
51
CRAD LE TO CI1ADL I·:
52
W il Y llEI~(; " u :ss B ,\D" IS NO GOOLJ
53
CRA DLE TO CKA DLE
54
W il Y llEING "L~:SS BAD" IS ~0 G OOD
55
C BAOLE TO C HAOI.E
chemicals that are not healthy food for any animal. Sewage
sludge is also used as fertili zer, which is a well -in tended at-
tempt to make use of nutrients, but as currently processed it
ca n contain harmful substa nces ( li ke dioxins, heavy metals,
endocrin e dis ru pters, a nd a ntibioti cs) that a re in appropri ate for
fertili zing crops. Even res ide nti al sewage sludge that contains
Loi let paper mad e from recycled paper may carry dioxins. Un-
less materials are specifica lly desig ned to ultimately become
safe fo od for nature, composting can present problems as well.
When so-called biod egradable muni cipal wastes, inc luding
packaging and paper, a re composted , th e chemicals and tox ins
in the materi als can be released into the environm ent. Even if
th ese toxins ex is t in minute amounts, the practi ce may not be
safe . In some cases it would actua lly be less dangerous to seal
the materials in a landfill.
What about recycling? As we have noted, most recyc ling is
actua ll y downcycling; it reduces the qua lity of a mate ri a l over
Lime. Whe n plas tics other tha n those found in soda and water
bottles are recycled, they are mixed with differe nt pl as ti cs Lo
produce a hybrid of lower quality, which is then molded into
something a morphous and cheap, s uch as a park bench or a
s peed bump. Me ta ls are ofte n downcycled. For example, th e
hi gh-q ua lity s tee l used in automobil es-high-carbon, high-
tens ile s teel- is " recycled" by melting it down with other car
parts, including copper from the cabl es in the car, and the paint
and plastic coati ngs. These materials lower the recycled steel's
quality. More high -quality steel may be added to make the hy-
brid s trong enough for its nex t us e, but it will not have the ma-
teri a l properti es l.o make new ca rs aga in. Meanwhil e the rare
56
W II Y B F: I 1\ G '• I. t: S S ll A D ., IS ~ 0 G 0 0 I)
57
C RAD L E TO CB A DLE
again. For example, when some plastics are melted and com-
bined, th e polymers in the plastic -the chains that make it
s trong and flexible-shorten. Since the materi a l properties of
this recycled plasti c are a lte red (its e lasti city, clarity, and ten-
s il e strength a re diminis hed), chemical or min eral additives
ma y be add ed to attain the desired performance quality. As a
result, downcycled pl astic may have more additives than "vir-
gin" plas tic .
Because it was not designed wit h recyc ling in mind, pa per
requires extens ive bleaching and other chemical processes to
make it bla nk again for reuse. The result is a mixture of c he m-
icals, pulp, and in some cases toxic ink s that are not reall y ap-
propriate for hand ling and use. The fibers are shorter and the
paper less s mooth than virgin paper, a ll owing an even higher
proportion of particles to abrade in to the air, whe re they can be
inha led a nd can irritate th e nasal passages and lungs. Some
people have developed alle rgies to newspapers, whic h are often
made from recycled paper.
The creative use of downcycled materi als for ne w products
can be misguided, despite good intentions. For example, people
may feel they a re ma king an eco logically sound choi ce by buy-
ing and wearing clothing made of fibers li·01n recycled plasti c
bottles. But the fibers from pl asti c bottles contain toxins such as
antimony, catalyti c residu es, ultraviolet s tabilizers, plasticizers,
and antioxidants, which were never designed to li e next to hu-
man skin. Us ing downcycled paper as ins ulati on is another cur-
rent trend. But additiona l chemica ls (such as fun gicides to
prevent mi ldew) mus t be add ed to make downcycled paper suit-
able for ins ulati on, intens ifying th e problems already caused by
58
WilY IIEING ''LE SS IIAD " I S ~0 G OOD
toxic inks and other contaminants. The insul ation might then off-
gas formaldehyde and other chemicals into the home .
In all of these cases, the agenda to recycle has superseded
oth er design co ns ide rat ions. Ju st hec:Hu~e a material is recycled
does not automati call y make it ecologically benign, es pecially
if it was not designed s pec ifically for recyc li ng. Blindly adopt-
ing superficia l environm ental approaches without fu lly under-
stand ing their effects can be no better- and perhaps even
worse-tha n doing nothing.
Downcyc ling has one more disad van tage. It can be more
expens ive for businesses, partly because it tries to force materi-
als into more lifetimes than th ey were or iginaJ ly designed for, a
complicated and messy conve rs ion and one th at itself expends
e ne rgy and resources. Legislation in Europe requ ires packag-
ing materia ls that a re made of aluminum a nd polypropylene to
be recycled. But because these boxes are not designed to be re-
cycled into new pac kaging (that is, to be reused by the ind ustry
to ma ke its own product aga in), compli ance results in add i-
ti onal operating costs. The components of the old pac kages are
often downcyc led in to lower-q uality products until they are
eventuall y inc inerated or la ndfilled a nyway. In thi s instance as
in many others, an ecolog ical age nda becomes a burden for in-
dus try instead of a rewardi ng opti on.
In Systems of Survival the urbanist a nd economi c thin ke r
.Jane Jacobs desc ri bes two fu nda mental syndromes of human
c ivili zations: what she calls the guardian and commerce. The
guard ian is th e gove rnment, the agency whose primary purpose
is to prese rve and protect the public . This sy ndrome is s low a nd
serious. It reserves the right to kill-that is, it wi ll go to wa r. It
59
C HAOL~ TO C ll.Ail i.E
60
W il Y U ~ I ~G '' L I:~~ D A D " I S NO GOOil
does not examine the design that caused the pollution in the
fi rs t place. The essential flaw remains: badly des igned materi -
als and systems that are un suitable for indoor use.
Jacobs sees oth er prob lems wi th "rnonsl rous hybrids."
Regulations force compani es to co mply under th reat of pu ni sh-
ment, but they seldom reward commerce for taking ini tiatives.
Since regul ations often require one-s ize -fits-all end-of-pipe so-
lutions rath er th an a deeper des ign response, they do not di-
rec tly enco urage creative prob lem-solving. And regulation can
pi t environmentalists and ind us tries agains t eac h other. Be-
cause regulati ons see m like a chastisement, ind us t.-ia lists find
them a nnoying a nd burde nsome . Since en viro nmenta l goals a re
typica lly forced upon bus iness by the guard ian- or are simply
pe rceived as an added d ime ns io n outs ide cr uc ial ope rating
me thods a nd goals -ind us tri ali sts see environmental initiati ves
as inhere ntly uneconomi c.
We do not mean to lambaste those who are work in g with
good intentions to create and enforce laws meant to protect the
pub li c good. In a world where designs are uni nte lligent and de-
s tructi ve, regula tions can reduce immediate dele te rious effects.
But ul timately a regulati on is a s igna l of des ign fa ilu re. In fact,
it is what we call a license to harm: a permit issued by a gov-
ernment to an indus try so tha t it may d ispense s ickness, de-
s truction, and death at an "acceptable" ra te. But as we sha ll
see, good des ign can require no regulation at all.
61
CRAO L F. TO C R ADLE
does not reach deep enough. lt works within the same system
that caused the problem in the first place, merely slowing it
down with moral proscriptions a nd puniti ve meas ures. It pre-
sP.nt s litti P- morp, than an illus ion of c ha ngP-. Re lying on eco-
e ffi c ie ncy to save the e nvironment will in fac t achieve the
opposite; it will le t industry finish off everything, qui etl y, pe r-
s istently, and comple tely.
Remember the retroacti ve des ign assignme nt tha t we ap-
plie d to the Industria l Revolution in Chapter On e? If we we re
to take a s imila r look a t industry unde r the infiue nce of the eco-
effic iency moveme nt, th e results mi ght look li ke thi s :
Pla inly pu t, eco-e ffic ie ncy only works to ma ke the old, destruc-
ti ve syste m a bit less so. In some cases, it can be more perni-
c ious, because its workings a re more subtle a nd long-te rnl. An
62
W il Y B E I ~G "l.f~SS B AD" IS ~0 GOOD
Efficient-at What?
63
CI<A ili.E TO CKAili.E
64
IV II Y ll E I ~ G '' I. E S S B A D " IS ~ 0 G0 0 U
65
C HAD L ~ TO C HADLE
66
W II Y B E I N G " LE SS ll A D., IS ~0 G0 0 D
67
Chaplt'r Tht·ce
Eco-Effectivene ss
68
U ; O - E FFf. C T I \ F.l\t: ~~
69
CRAil l.io: TO CRAD LE
based inks . For a cceptable durabili ty, the cover was coated, so
it is n' t recyclabl e with the rest of the book, a nd because of it s
already high recyc led con te nt , the pape r's fib ers have about
reached the limits of furth e r usc. Once uguin, be in g less ban
proves to be a fair ly unappea ling opt ion, practically, aesthe ti-
cally, a nd e nvi ronme ntally.
Imagine if we were to re think the e ntire concept of a book,
cons ide ri ng not only the prac ti ca lities of manufacture a nd use
but the pleas ures tha t might be brought to both. Ente r book
three, th e book of th e future.
Is it an e lectronic book·? Pe rhaps -th a t form i still in its
infa ncy. O r pe rha ps it takes another form as yet unimagine d by
us . But ma ny peopl e find the fo rm of th e tradi ti ona l book both
conve nie nt a nd delightful. What if we reconceived not the
shape of the obje c t b ut th e ma te ria ls of whic h it is made, in the
context of its re la ti onship to the natura l wo rld ? How coul d it be
a boon to both peop le and the e nviron me nt?
We might begin by cons ide ring wheth er paper itself is a
prope r ve hicle for reading matte r. Is it fitting to writ e our hi s-
tory on the skin of fis h with the blood of bears, to echo wri ter
Ma rgare t Atwood? Let's imagine a book tha t is not a tree. It is
not even pape r. In stead, it is made of pl astics developed around
a comple te ly diffe re nt paradigrn fu r ruatt::ri als, polyme rs tha t
are infinit e ly re c ycl a bl e at the s ame level of quality-tha t have
been des igned wi th the ir future li fe fore most in mind, rat her
than as a n awkward afte rthought. This " paper" doesn' t require
cuLLing down trees or leac hing c hlori ne into waterways. The
inks are nontox ic and can be washed off the polymer with a
s imple a nd safe c he mica l process or a n e xtreme ly hot wa ter
70
bath. from e ithe r of whic h they can be recove red and re used.
Th e cover is made from a heavier grade of the same pol yme r as
th e re,; t of the book, a nd the glues are made of com patib le in-
gred ie nts . so tha t once the mate rials a rc no longP.r nPNIPrl in
their pre ~C' n l form, the e ntire book can be reclaimed by the
publis hing indus try in a ,; imple one-step reryel ing process.
Nor is th e reade r's plea sure and conveni ence an after-
thought to environmenta ll y res ponsible des ign. The pages a re
wh ite and have a sensuous s moothness, a nd unli ke recyc led
pape r, I hey wi II not yellow with age. 'T'he in k won' t rub off on
the re acl er's fin gers. Although its nex t life has a lre ady been
imagine d , thi s book is durable e nough to last for many genera -
tions . It's even waterproof, s o you can read it at the beaeh, even
in the hot tu b. You 'd buy it , carry it, a nd read it not as a badge
of a us te rit y-a nd not on ly for its conte nt-but for its shee r tac-
til e p leas ure. It celebrates its material s rathe r tha n a pologizing
for them. Books become books become books over a nd over
aga in , each inca rn ati on a s parkling ne w vehicle for fresh im-
ages a nd ideas. Form foll ow,; not jus t Junttion but the evolu tion
of th e me d ium itself, in tlw endl essly p ropagating sp iri t of the
printe d word.
The ass ignme nt th at leads to the d1>s ign of this third book
is to LPII a story within the very molecu les of its page;;. ot the
old tale of da mage and de ·pa ir, but one of a bundanl'c and re -
newa l, human c reat ivity a nd poss ib ilit y. And although the book
you hold in your hands is not. yet tha t book, it is a step in tha t
direct.iou, a begin ning to the story.
We did not des ign th e mate rials of 1his book. Aft er years of
a nal yzing a nd testing pol ymers to rep lar<' pa pe r. we were de-
71
C ll A IJ I. f. T 0 C II A ll U .
Cons ider the c he rry tree: thousands of blossoms create fruit for
bi rds, huma ns, and other a nimals, in order that one pit might
eventuall y fall ont o the grou 11d, take root, and grow. Who would
72
KC O- EF~E C TIVENE SS
73
Cll~fli.E T O CH ,I D I.E
74
every e le men t, the building expresses the clie nt's and arc hi-
tects' vis ion of a life-ce nte red community and e nvironment. We
know, because Bill's firm led th e team that des igned it.
We brought the same sens ibility to designing a factory for
He rman Mille r, the office-furniture manufacturer. We wa nted to
give workers the feeling tha t they'd s pe nt the day outdoors, un-
lik e wo rkers in the conve nti onal factory of the Industria l Revo-
lution , who might not see dayli ght until the weeke nd . The
oiiices a nd manufac turing space tha t we des igned for He rma n
Mille r were built for only 10 percent more money th an it would
have cost to erec t a s ta nda rd prefabricated me tal fac tory build-
ing. We des igned the fac tory a round a tree- lined inte1ior con-
ce ived as a brightly day lit "s treet" that ra n th e e ntire length of
the building. There a re rooftop s kyli ghts everywhe re the work-
e rs are stationed , and the ma nufacturing s pace offers vi e ws of
both the inte rnal s treet and the outdoors, so that even as they
wo rk indoors, e mployees get to participate in the cycles of the
day and th e seasons. (Even th e truc k doc ks ha ve windows.) The
fac tory was des igned to cele brate the local la ndscape and to in-
vite indigenous s pec ies bac k to the s ite ins tead of scaring the m
a way. Storm wate r a nd waste water are c hanneled through a se-
ries of connec ted we tla nds tha t c lean the m, in the process
lighte ning the luad urr tire lucal riv e r, wlridr aln::ady ~uffen; ~e
rious floodi ng because of runoff from roofs, pa rking lots, and
othe r impervious smfaces.
An analys is of the fac tory's dra ma ti c produc ti vity ga ins has
s hown that one fac tor was "biophilia"-people's love of the out-
doors. Re te ntion rates have been im press ive. A number of
worke rs who left for highe r wages a t a eompe t itor's fa c tory re-
75
C HADI.f. TO CI1AI)I.E
76
ECU-fFF[CTIVENE SS
more efftc ie nt, demateri ali zing, or even not "liLtering" (imagine
zero waste or zero emi ssions for nature !) is pre pos terou s. Th e
marve lou s thing about effective systems is that one wants more
of the m, not less.
What Is Growth?
77
CH ,\IlLf. TO C ll ADLI:
ificati on, and global wa rming. The ir desire for a no-growth sce-
na rio naturally frus trated the commerc ial players, for whom " no
growth" could have only negative consequences. The pe rceived
confli ct between nature and industry made it loo k as if the val-
ues of one system must be sacrificed to the other.
But unques tionab ly th ere are things we a ll want to grow,
and things we don' t want to grow. We wis h to grow educati on
and not ignorance, health and not s ickness, prosperity and not
des titution, clean water and not poisoned wate r. We wis h to im-
prove the quality of life.
The key is not to make huma n in dustries and sys te ms
s ma lle r, as effic ie ncy advocates propound, but to des ign th em
to get bigger and beuer in a way tha t replenishes, restores, and
nouri shes the rest of the world. Thus the " right things" for ma n-
ufacturers and indus trialis ts to do are those that lead to good
growth-more niches, health, nouri s hment, diversity, intelli-
gence, a nd abunda nce-for this generation of inhabitants on
th e planet and fo r generati ons to come .
78
KCO- EFFE CT I VE NE SS
Indi vidually we are muc h la rge r th a n a nts, but coll ecti vely
the ir biurnuss exl:eeds ours. Ju st as there is almost no corner of
the globe untou ched by huma n presence, there is ulmost no
land hab itut, from ha rs h desert to inne r c ity, untouc hed by
some s pec ies of a nl. They a re a good example of a popul a tion
whose de ns ity and produc ti ve ness a re not a probl e m for the rest
of the world , because e ve rything they make and use re turns to
the cradle-to-cradle cycles of na ture. All their ma terials, even
79
C II AOL "- 1'0 C IIA D U .
80
~ CO -EVFECTIV~\~ SS
conseque nces of a new strip mall, on the other hand , while they
may have some immedi a te local be nefits ( jobs, more money c ir-
c ula ting throu gh the local economy) a nd may e ve n boost the
country's overall C OP, are gain ed a t th e expe nse of a dec line in
ove ra ll quality of life -in creased traffic, asphalt, pollution, a nd
waste -that ultima tely undermines even some of the ma ll's os-
te ns ible benefits.
Typi caJi y, conventiona l ma nufacturing operations have
predomina ntl y negative s ide effects . In a tex til e factory, for ex-
a mple, water may come in clean, bu t it goes out contam ina ted
with fab ri c dyes, whic h usua lly contain toxins s uc h as cobalt,
zirconium, other heavy me tals, and fini shing c he micals . Solid
wastes from fa bric trimmin gs and loom clippings present a n-
othe r proble m, as mu c h of the ma te ri a l used for tex til es is
pe troc he mica l-based. Efflu e nts a nd s ludge from produc ti on
processes cannot be safe ly de pos ited into ecosys tems, so they
a re ofte n buri ed or burned as hazardous waste . The fabric itself
is sold all over the world, used , the n thrown "away"-whic h
us ua ll y means it is eith er inc inera ted, releasing toxins, or
placed in a la ndfill. Eve n in the ra the r s hort life span of the
fa bri c, its partic les have abrad ed into th e a ir a nd been ta ken
into people's lungs . Al l this in th e nam e of effic ie nt produ ction.
Just about every process has s id e effects . But they can be
deli be rate a nd sustaining ins tead of uninte nded a nd perni-
c ious. We ca n be humbl ed by th e compl ex it y a nd inte lli gence
of nature's acti vity, a nd we can a lso be ins pired by it to design
some posi ti ve s id e effects to our own e nte rprises ins tead of fo-
c using exclus ively on a s ingle end .
E co-effecti ve designers ex pand the ir vis ion from the pri-
81
C ll .~ IJ I. ~: T0 C II A D L E
82
made the m necessary in the firs t place. As for shrinking habi-
ta t, we ll , we'd lik e ly th row up our ha nd s. Is n' t wi ldlife a n in-
e vi tab le casua lty of urba n growth '?
We have been working with a kind of roofing that responds
to a ll of th ese issues, inc lud ing the economi c ones. It is a li ght
layer of soil, a growing matrix, covered with plants. It ma intains
th e roof at a stable te mpera ture, provid ing free evapora ti ve
coo ling in hot weathe r a nd in sul ati on in cold weathe r, a nd
s hi elds it from the s un's des tru c ti ve rays, mak ing it las t longe r.
ln add ition, it makes oxygen, sequ este rs carbon, captures par-
tic ulates like soot, and absorbs storm wate r. And that's not a ll :
it looks far more a ttractive tha n naked asphalt a nd , with the
storm -wate r managemen t, saves money tha t wou ld be lost to
regula tory fees a nd flood dam age. l n approp ria te loca les, it can
even be engin eered to produce solar-gene rated elect ri c ity.
If th is sound s like a novel idea, it 's not. It is based on
ce nturies-old bu ild ing techniques. (ln Icela nd , for examp le,
ma ny old farms were bui lt with s tones, wood, and sod, and grass
for roofs.) And it is wide ly used in F"urope, where lens of mil -
lions of square feel of suc h roofin g a lready exis t. E nha nced by to-
day's sophi sti cated tec hnology a nd e ngin eering, th is approac h
to roofing is effective on multiple levels, not leas t of whi c h is its
ability to capture the public imagina tion. We helped Mayor
Ric ha rd Da ley p ut a gard e n on the roof of Chicago's city hall,
a nd he f()resees a whole c ity cove re d with green roofs th a t will
not on ly keep it coo l bu t produ ce sola r e ne rgy a nd grow food
a nd flowers, as well as provid ing sooth ing green sanc tu a ry from
bus y urban s treets lo birds a nd peop le a like.
83
C R ,IOI.F. T O C RADLE
Beyond Control
84
ECO-EFFECT I V~N~SS
sculpted garde ns a nd lrees. What autumn lea ves !he re are mus l
be qui ckl y gath ered from the ground, placed in plasti c bags,
and landfilled or burned rath er than com posted. Ins lead of try-
ing lo optimize na ture's abunda nce, we a utomati call y try lo gel
it ou l of the way. For many of us used Loa c ulture of control , na-
ture in its unta med stale is nei the r a familiar nor a welcoming
pl ace.
To e mphasize this po int, Mic hae l lik es to !e ll lhe s tory of
the forbi dde n cherry tree. In L986 seve ral peo ple in a ne igh-
borh ood in Hannover, Germa ny, dec ided they wanted to plant a
c herry tree on their s treet. They thought s uc h a n add ition would
prov id e habita t fo r songbirds a nd pleasure for p eop le who
mi ght want to eat th e c he rri es, plu c k a blossom or two, or s im -
ply admire the tree's beauty. lL seemed a n easy e nough deci-
sion, with onl y pos itive effects . But the tree was not so eas il y
lra ns posed from the ir imagina tions to real life. Accocd in g to
zoning laws in thai neighborhood, a new c he rry-lree pla ntin g
would nol be legal. What th e reside nls vie wed as de lighlfu l, 1he
legis la ture viewed as a ris k. People might sli p on falle n c he r-
ries a nd che rry bl ossom . Fruil lrees with da ngling fruit mighl
lure c hildre n lo c limb th e m- a liabilil y if a child fe ll a nd gol
hurl. The che rry tree was s impl y not ef~ci ent e nough for th e
leg isla tors: il was messy, c reati ve, unpredic tabl e. It could nol
be controlled or anti cipated. The syste m was not set up to ha n-
dl e some thing of tha i kind. Th e ne ighbors pressed on, however,
a nd eventually lh ey we re granted spec ia l p e rmission lo plan!
the tree.
The forbidden fruit tree is a useful me tap hor for a c ui -
lure of control, for the harri ers erected a nd mainta in ed-
85
C 11 A 0 L E 'J' 0 C H A ll U :
Becoming a Native
The re is some talk in scie nce and popular c ulture about colo-
nizing othe r pla nets, suc h as Ma rs or the moon. Part of thi s is
ju:;l huma n nature: we a rP curious, ex ploring c realures. The
idC'a of taming a new fronti er has a compelling, even romanti c,
pull, li ke that of the 11100n itself. But th e idea also provides ra-
86
EGO -EFFE CTIVENESS
87
CllAil l E ro C R A DLI:.
88
~CO - [FFECT I VE N E SS
89
CIt A 0 L f: 'I' 0 C ll A I) I. E
money sell in g olive oil! By the time I feed the donkey tha t car -
ries my oi I to marke t, most of my profit is gone ." His fri e ncl sug-
gests he feed the donkey a Iinl e less. ix weeks late r they meet
aga in at the mark e tp l ae~ . Tit ~:: uil se ll e r is in r oor sha pe, with
ne ither money nor donkey. When hi s fr ie nd as ks wha t ha p-
pe ned, the vendor re plies, " We ll , I dicl as you sa id . I fed the
donkey a lillie less, and I began to clo reall y we ll. So I fed him
even less, a nd I d id e ve n bell.e r. But just at the point whe re I
was becoming rea ll y s uccessfu l, he dieJ !"
fs our goa l to sta rve oursel ves? To de pri ve ourselves of our
own c ultu re, our own industri es, our own p resence on the
pla ne t, to a im for zero? H ow ins piring a goa l is tha t? Wou ld n't
it be wonclerfu l if, rathe r tha n be moan ing hu ma n indus try, we
had reason to c ha mpion it? If e nvironme nta li sts as well as a uto-
mobi le ma kers could a ppla ud every time someone excha nged
an old car for a new one, because new ca rs purified th e a ir
a nd produ ced d rinking wate r? If ne w buil di ngs imitated trees,
providing s ha de, songbird ha bitat, food , e nergy, a ncl clean
wa te r? l f each ne w addition to a human community deepe ned
eco logica l and c ultura l as well as economi c wea lth ? If mode rn
. ocie ties we re pe rce ived as increas ing assets and deli ghts on a
very la rge sea le, instead of bringing the plane t to the brink of
disaste r?
We would like to s uggest a ne w des ign ass ignme nt. Instead
of fin e-lun ing the ex is ting destructive fram ework, why don' t
peopl e a nd indus tri es set out to c reate the foll owing:
90
ECO-EFFECT I VENE SS
91
Cha pter Four
92
WA ~ 'n: EQLAL S ~· oo n
From our pe rs pecti ve, these two kinds of mate rial Aows on
the plan et are just biological and technical nutrients. Biological
nutrie nts are useful to the biosph ere, whil e technical nutrients
are useful for wha t we ca ll th P. u~r.hnnsphfm!, thP. !';ystP.m!'; of in -
dustrial processes. Ye t some how we have evol ved an indus trial
infrastruc ture that ignores the existe nce of nutri e nts of e ithe r
kind.
93
C 11 A D I. E T0 C I( A D L £
94
WA S TE: EQltiL S F OOD
95
CKADI.E TU C H JIIlLE
96
WA S TE EQlu \LS FOOD
97
CRAI>LE TO CHAD LE
Monstrous Hybrids
Mountains of was te ris ing in landfill s are a grow ing conce rn,
but the quantity of these wastes-th e space they take up-is
not the major prob lem of cradl e-to-grave designs. Of greater
98
WAST I•: EQU A I.S roan
99
CHA IlL~ TO C I\ A OLE
A Confusion of Flows
100
\IA ~ T!: [Ql' AL~ ~000
101
C II A[) t t: T0 C ll A 0 I. F.
102
II ASTE E Q L AL S F OOD
the very first time. When I am finis hed with it (s pecia l, unique
pers on that I am), eve ryone is. It is hi story." Ind us tries des ign
and pla n according to this mind-set.
We recognize and unde rs ta nd the value of feeling ~ J.l e~,;i al ,
103
CllAD LI.: TO CRAill. E
104
would nol onl y be los t to the biosphere but would weaken the
quality of techni cal mat eri als or make their retrieval and reuse
more compli cated.
105
C RA DLE TO C R ADLE
upholstery fabric, working with the Swiss tex tile mill Rohner.
We were asked to focus on creating an aesthetically unique fab-
ric tha t was also environme ntally intelli gent. DesignTex firs t
proposed that we consider colton cornLined with PET (polyeth-
ylene terephthalate) fibers from recycled soda boules. What
could be better for the e nvironment, they thought, than a prod-
uct that combined a "natu ral" materia l wi th a " recycled" one?
Such hybrid material had the additional apparent advantages of
bei ng read ily available, market-tested, durable, and cheap.
But when we looked carefully at the potential long-term
design legacy, we discovered some disturbing facts. F'irsl, as we
have mentioned, upholstery abrades during normal use, a nd so
our design had to allow fo r the poss ibility th at pmticles might
be inh aled or swallowed. PET is covered with synthetic dyes
a nd chemicals a nd contains other questionable s ubstances-
not exactly what you want to breathe or eat. Furthermore, the
fabric would not be able to continue after its useful life as e i-
ther a technical or a biological nutri ent. The PET (from the
plasti c bottles) wou ld not go bac k to the soil safely, and the cot-
ton could not be circ ulated in industrial cycles. The combina-
ti on would be yet another monstrous hybrid, adding junk to a
landfill , and it might also be dangerous. This was not a product
worth making.
We made clear to our c lient ou r inte ntion to create a prod-
uct that wou ld enter e ithe r the biological or the technical me-
tabolism, a nd the challenge crystallized for both of us. The
learn decided to design a fabric tha t would be safe e nough to
eat: it would not harm people who breathed it in, and it wou ld
106
WA S TE EQU .~L S fOOD
107
C II A D u : T0 C II 1\ D I. E
108
factory's e fflu e nt is cl eane r tha n its influe nt, it might well prefer
to use its effiu e nt as influ e nt.. Being designe d into the ma nufac-
turin g process, this d ivide nd is free a nd requires no e nforce-
ment to con tinue or to expl oit. ot only d id our new design
process bypass the trad iti ona l res ponses to en vironmental
problems (reduce, reuse, recycle), it also elimina ted the need
for regul a tion, some thing tha t a ny b us inessperson will a pprec i-
a te as extre me ly valu able.
Th e process had additiona l pos iti ve side e ffects . Employees
began to use, fo r recreation and a dditi ona l work space, rooms
that were previously reserved for hazardous-chemi cal s torage.
Regu la tory paperwor k was elimina ted. Workers slopped weari ng
the gloves and masks that had given the m a thi n vei l of protec-
ti on aga ins t workplace tox ins . The mill 's prod uc ts beca me so
successful tha t it faced a new proble m: fi na nc ia l success, just
the kind of proble m bu s inesses want to have .
As a biological nutri ent, the fab ri c e mbodied the kind of
fecu ndity we find in na ture's work. Afte r custome rs finis he d us-
ing it, they cou ld s im ply tear th e fab ric off the c hai r frame a nd
th row it onto the soil or compost heap without fee ling bad-
even, pe rhaps, with a kind of re li sh. Th rowing something away
can be fun, let's a d mit it; a nd giving a guilt-free gift to th e nat-
ural world is a n in comparable pleasure.
109
CRA DLE TO C RADLE
110
WA STE EQUA L S FOOD
11 1
CllA IJLE TO CllA ili.E
112
\1' ,\ S Tfc F.QUAL S FOOO
for th e carpe t indu stry alone are wasted eac h year, and new raw
mate ria ls mus t continua lly be extracted . Customers who decide
they want or need new carpe ting a1·e inconvenienced, fin a n-
cia lly hurn P-nP.d with a nP-w purcha sP. (thP- cosl oflht! unrecove r-
able mate rials mus t be bui lt into th e price), and , if they are
environm ent a ll y concerned , taxed with guilt as well about d is-
pos ing of th e old a nd purchas ing the new.
Carpet compani es have been among th e firs t indus tries to
adopt our produ c t-of-servi ce or "ceo-leas ing" concepts, but so
far they have applied the m to co nve ntiona ll y designe d prod-
ucts. An average comme rc ia l carpe t cons ists of nylon fibe rs
bac ked with fib e rglass a nd PVC. After th e produc t's useful life,
a manufac ture r typ ically downcycles it- shaves off some of the
nylon materia l for furth e r use a nd discard s the leftover ma teri a l
"soup." A lte rna tely, the manufac ture r may chop up the whole
thing, re melt it , and use it to ma ke more carpe t bac king. S uc h a
carpet was not origina lly designed to be recyc led a nd is bei ng
forced into anoth e r cycle for whi c h it is not ideally suited. But
carpe ting des igned as a tru e tec hnical nutri e nt would be made
of safe mate ri a ls des igned to be trul y recycl ed as ra w material
for fresh carpe ting, a nd the de li very syste m for its ser vice
woulJ cost the sa me as or less than bu ying il. One of our id eas
for a new des ign wou ld combin e a durable bot.t.om layer with a
detac ha bl e top. Whe n a c us tomer wants to replace the carpe t-
ing, t.he ma nufacturer s impl y re moves the top, snaps down a
fres h one in the des ire d color, anJ takes the old on e bac k as
food for furth er carpe ting.
• • •
113
C ll A ili.F. T O C R ADLE:
Under this scenario, people could indulge the ir hunger for new
produc ts as ofte n as they wis h, without guilt, a nd indus try
could e ncoumge the m to do so with impunity, knowing tha t
both sides are s upporting the technical metabolis m in the
proces . A utomobile ma nufacture rs would want people to turn
in th eir old cars in order to regain valua ble ind ustria l nutri e nts.
Ins tead of waving industrial resources good -bye as the c us -
tomer d ri ves off in a new car, ne ve r to e nter the deale rs hip
again, automobil e compa nies could develop Ia ting a nd valu-
a ble rela tions hi p tha t e nh a nce custome rs' q ua lity of life for
ma ny decades a nd tha t continuall y e nric h the industry itself
with indus trial "food ."
Designing produ c ts as products of ser v.ice means designing
the m to be disassembled. Industry need not des ign wha t it
ma ke to be dura bl e beyond a certa in a mount of time, a ny more
tha n nature does. The dura bility of ma ny c urre nt products could
e ven be seen as a kind of inte rgene ra tiona l tyra nn y. Maybe we
want our things to li ve forever, but what do future gene ra tions
wa nt? What a bout. the ir right to the purs uit of life, l.ibeity, a nd
happiness, to a celebration of the ir own a bunda nce of nutrients,
of mate rials, of delight ? Ma nufacturers would, however, have
perma ne nt respons ib ilit y for s toring and, if it is possible to do
o safe ly, re us ing whate ve r pote ntially hazardous matP.ri als
the ir pmducts conta in. Wha t belle r incenti ve to e volve a design
tha t does without the hazardous ma te rials e ntirel y?
The ad vantages of this s yste m, whe n full y imple me nted ,
woul d be threefold: it would produce no useles a nd pote ntially
dangerous waste; it would save ma nufactu re rs billions of dol-
la rs in valua ble ma teria ls ove r time; a nd , because nutrie nts for
1 14
WASTE EQU ,\ L S FOO D
new produc ts are cons tantly c irc ulated , it would dimini sh the
extracti on of raw ma te ri als (suc h as petroc he mi cals) a nd th e
ma nufacture of pote nti ally di sruptive ma te ri als, such as PVC,
and eventually phase them uut, n:~:sultiug in murt: :saviug:s tu the
manufacture r and enormous be nefit to the e nvironment.
A numbe r of products a re ah·eady be ing designed as bio-
logical a nd techni cal nutrients. But for the foreseeable future,
ma ny products will still not fit e ither category, a pote ntiaJiy
dangerous s itua tion. In addition , certain products cannot be
con11ned to one metabolism exclusively beca use of the way they
are used in th e wo rld. Th ese produc ts de mand spec ial allen-
Lion.
115
for c us hioning-some of which we re recently di scove red fac-
tors in global wa rmin g-you may a lso be co ntributing to cli-
mate c ha nge.) Running shoes can be redes igned so tha t their
soles are biological nutrients . The n when they breaks down un-
der pounding feet, they will nouri s h th e organic metabolis m in-
s tead of poisoning it. As long as the uppers re ma in techni ca l
nutrie nts, howeve r, th e shoes would be des igned for easy el isa -
sembly in order to be safe ly reci rc ul a ted in both cycles (w ith
the tec hni cal materia ls to he retrieved by the manufacture r).
Re tri e ving technica l nutrie nts from the shoes of fam ous a th-
le tes- and adverti s ing th e fact -could give a n a thl e ti c-gear
company a compe titi ve edge.
Some ma te ria ls do not fit into e ith e r the organ ic or tec hni-
ca l me ta bolism because th ey contain ma te ri als tha t a re haz-
a rdous . We call th e m unmarketables, and until tec hnologica l
ways of de toxifying the rn-or doing without the m- have been
de veloped, th ey a lso require c reative measures. They ca n be
storecl in " parking lots"-safe re pos itori es tha t the produce r of
the ma te ria l e ithe r ma intains or pays a s torage fee to use. Cur-
rent unmarketables can be recalled for safe storage, until they
ca n be de tox ified a nd returned as valuable mol ecules to a safe
human use. N uclear waste is clearl y a n unma rk etable; in a
pure se nse, the defin iti on s hould a lso inc lude ma te ri a ls know n
to have hazardous co mpone nts . PV C is one suc h example : in -
s tead of be ing inc ine ra ted or landfi lled, it mi ght ins tead be
safely "parked" until cos t-effec ti ve de toxification tec hnologies
have evolved. As c urre ntly made, P ET, with its a ntimony con-
Le nt, is another unmarke table: with some technologica l ingenu -
ity, ite ms tha t contai n PET, s uc h as soda bottles, rnight even be
116
WA S TE EQIJAI. S f' O OD
11 7
Chapter· Five
Respect Diversity
118
HE ~V~ t T O I VE~ S ITY
119
ClliiO I.F. TO CRiiiJ I f:
can, a nd to ex press it? How can we e n ric h loea l spt>c ies. and
invite th em into our "c ulti vated" landscapes instead of destroy-
ing or c ha s in g the m away? fl ow can we ga in profit a nd pl easure
from a di ve rs ity of na tura l e ne rgy Hows? I low can we e ngage
with a n a bunda nce of di verse mate ri a ls, opti ons , a nd re-
s ponses, of c reative a nd e legant solutio ns?
120
H ~ 'i I' I C r IJ I I f H '-I r\
tht> lrap-jaw ani , whose feroc ious s rwpp1ng JaW is legenda ry.
Arou nd the world !here are anl s th ai hunl a lone. a nts !hat hunt
in grou ps, and a nls !hal raise broods of aph id "ea llle." whi ch
tll('y milk fo r s weet liq uid. In a startling u;:.e of sola r power,
hundre-ds of one eoluny's work ers may elusler on I he fores t noor
lo soak up s unli ghl befo re ca rrying ils wannlh in their vt"ry
bodies back down 10 I he nesl.
Being fi lling, ants do nol inevitabl y work lo destroy co m-
pel ing species. Ralher. tlw y compe te produel ivc- ly from !heir
ni(·hc-s, llw le nn scie nli sls use to deseriht" s pf'c ic-s' \'ariou,.,
zont"s of habilalion and resource use wi lhi n an ecosys tt"m. Jn
hi s book Diversify and th e Hain Pores/, John Te rborgh, a scie n-
list who has studied I he: compl ex ecosysll'ttt s of lhc rain fores t,
expla ins how te n s pee ies of an i wren ntanage lo !'olwbi l a s ingle
area of 1he forcsl while preying on tht" samP kinds of insects:
one- spe(·ies inha bils an area close lo lhe ground , St"Vt" ral more-
li ve in lhe middle li ens of lhe lrees, and anolher ocC'upies llw
high C'anopy. In eac· h of lhese areas, speei(•s forage difft> r-
c nlly- one middl e-li f' r wrc: n giP-ans lhe IPavcs fur insed s, a n-
olhcr lhe !wi gs and brunc hes. a nd so fo rllt, leaving food in the
olhc•r nidws.
The vita lily of ecosyste ms J epeud s on rt> lali ons hips: wha t
got>s o n beLW{'f'll sp ('(' il ·s, I he ir uses and cx<"hunges of matet·ials
unci t"ne rgy in a givr n pl ac·<". A lapeslry is lite mclaphor oflen
in vok ed lo desc ribe di vt" rs il y, a ri chl y lex lured web of indi viJ -
ual s pec ies woven togelhe r with inte rlocking !as ks. In s uelt
a selling, di vcrsil y means s trength, a nd monopullure nwa ns
Wt"a knt"ss. R!:'rnove lite lhrcads. o1w by one . and an ecosystt"m
12 1
(. R I IJ I. f. r0 C R A 0 I. E
122
llE S Pt; C T OlYEil S I T\
123
(ll\lll~ TO C. R\ IJI.E
t24
llE S PECT D IV E H S I T Y
The id ea of local sus tainability is not limi ted to materia ls, but
it begins with the m. Us ing local materia ls opens th e doors to
profitable local e nterprise. It also avoids th e problem of bioin-
vas ion, whe n tra nsfer of materi als from one region to anothe r
inad verten tly introduces in vasive nonnative s pecies Lo frag ile
ecosystems. Ches tnu t b li ght, respons ible fo r wi ping out chest-
nul trees in the United States, e nte red this cou ntry on a pi ece
of lum be r from China. Chestnuts were a dominant tree of the
eas tern forests. The other nati ve spec ies evolved together with
them, and now they are gone .
We consider not only phys ical materials but physical
processes a nd the ir effect on the surrounding environme nt. In-
stead of destroying a land scape with conventi onal hac k-and-
mow practices, we imagine how to invite more local s pecies in
(as we did with the Herman Miller factory) . By seeing sustain-
ability as both a local a nd a global event, we can understand
that jus t as it is not viabl e to poison local water and air with
was te, it is eq uall y un acceptable to se nd it downstream, or to
ship it overseas to other, less regulated shores.
Perhaps the ultimate example of effective use of local ma-
ter ials lies in processing what we know as human waste -a
fundam e ntal app li cation also of the princ iple " waste equals
food." We have been wo rking on the c reati on of se wage treat-
125
C H A D LE TO C H 1IDL E
126
H~ S PfCT DI VERS ITY
127
C H,\IJL E TO CH ,\DL E
128
B f. ,; P f: C T I) I V f. H S I T Y
129
CKAOL£ TO CR\DJ.F.
130
RE S P E C T DIVER S I TY
13 1
C ll \ D I. f~ T0 C ll A I) I. t:
132
IIESP EC T DII' ER S ITY
viders throw off tre me ndou s heat ene rgy th at goes unu sed and
oft en disrupts the s urrounding ecosyste m, as whe n it is cooled
by way of a neighboring river. With ;;maHer utilities, .i t becomes
possible to ha rness was te heal to feed local needs . For exam-
ple, the hot wa te r ge ne rated by a s ma ll fu e l cell or mi cro-
turbin e ins ta ll ed in a res taurant, sa y, or even a res id ence, ca n
be put to imme d iate use, a te rrif1c con veni e nce (a nd savings) to
bu;;in esses and homeowne rs .
Rath e r tha n ins tall more large-;;ca le powe r-gene rating
equ ipme nt to meet pea k e nergy loa ds, utility co mpanies can in -
tegra te sol a r collectors as produ c ts of service with syste ms c ur-
re ntl y in use. l~es i dents a nd bus inesses cou ld be asked for
pe rmiss ion to lease the ir south-fac ing or flat roofs fo r this pur-
pose, or to access sola r collectors a lready in pl ace. (These roofs
need not look Iike cas toffs from the ;;pace program, by the way.
The ubiquitou s flat comme rc ia l roof is easy to solarize, a nd the
least ex pe ns ive solar arrays a re s impl y laid down like tiles. In
many pa rts of Ca lifornia they are cost-eff~ctive now.) During
peak use tinws, thi s d ivers e ly s uppli e d syste m is muc h more in
tune with its own peak s; the highest demand on the powe r sys-
te m is c rea ted by the desire for air-conditioning, whe n the sun
is hi gh- ex ac tl y wh e n sola r coll ec tors a re working best. It can
meel pe riod s of inte nse de mand mu c h more flex ibly tha n cen-
trali zed ene rgy monoc ultures of coal, gas, a nd nu c- lear power.
Another approach to the dramati c (and ex pe ns ive) flu c tua-
ti ons in e ne rgy demand: " intelligent" appliances tha t rece ive
info rmation about the c urre nt pri ce of power along with the
powe r itself, and c hoose from a lte rnate power sources at:cord -
ingly, li ke a broke r instruct ed to bu y or sell a ceord ing to the
133
CR ADLE TO CUAIJLE
ri se and fall of a given s tock pri ce. Why s hould you be pay ing
prime-time rates to have your refrigerator chi ll your milk a t two
o'clock on a s umme r afte rnoon, wh e n ai r-conditioning use has
the cit y on the verge of rolling blackouts? lnsteaci , your appli -
a nce could decide-accordi ng to c ri teria you dete rmi ne-when
to buy power a nd whe n to turn to a bl oc k of e utecti c sa lts or ice
that it conveni e nt.ly froze the night befo re, ready to keep your
refri gera tor coo l until dema nd and pri re come down. It's back
to th e fut ure : vo il a, you have an icebox. But you' re a vailing
yourself of th e c heapest, mos t read ily ava ilable powe r for a sim-
ple process, a nd you're not compe ting with the need of a hos-
pital eme rgency room to do so.
A s imilar foc us on d ivers ity and imm ed iately available re-
sources resulted in a break th rough in e ne rgy use in a la rge
automot ive manufacturing fac ility. The e ngineers were ha ving a
diffic ult Lime finding a n affordable way to make wo rk ers com-
forta ble. All the lillie things tha t cou ld save money were n't
adding up to muc h. They we re working with a typi ca l a pproach
Lo healing a nd cooling, in whi ch thermosta ts placed near burn-
e rs and a ir-conditioning units up nea r the roof sensed the need
to coo l or heat the building. In winte r, hot air rose toward the
roof, drawin g in cold air from outs ide, a nd had to he heated
again hy hurnP r~ and pum ped down to d is place the rolcl air it
drew in. All thi motion of a ir created an un welcome breeze
th at required even more hea lin g to count e rac t.
An e ngineer named Tom Kiser, of Professional Supply
Incorporated , proposed a radi ca l ne w s tra tegy. Ra the r tha n
drilling column s of cooled or heated a ir (as the seasons re-
quired) down toward e mployees a t hi gh s peed from "effi cientl y
134
I{[SI'F:C.T lliVEU'iiTY
135
C llALJLE 1"0 C R~Il L F
Wind power offers sim ilar possibili ties for hybrid syste ms that
rna ke more effec ti ve use of local resources. In places lik e
Chi cago, th e "wind y c ity" (where we are working with Mayor
Richard Daley to help c reate " the greenest ci ty in th e United
, tales"), and the Buffalo Ridge, whi ch runs along th e borde r of
Minnesota and South Dakota a nd is sometimes referred to as
the Saudi Arabia of wi nd, it's not diffic ult to imagine what local
source of pote nti al energy is most abu nd<Jnl. We are already
seeing multi-megawatt wind farms on the Ru ffalo Hid gc, and
the state of Minnesota has offe red incenti ve progra ms for wind-
fa rm developme nt. The Pae ir1c orth west, too, now sees itself
as a wind-powe r powerhouse, a nd new wind farms are springi ng
up in Pe mn;ylvani a. Florida. and Texas. Eu rope has had ag-
gress ive wi nd-energy programs for years.
From an eo1-effee ti ve perspec ti ve, howeve r, the design of
conventional wind -power plants is not always optima l. The new
wind farms are hu ge-as nwny as a hundred windmills (w ind
turbines, actuall y) grouped together, eac h of the m a Gol ia th ca-
p<~ hie of producing one megawatt of elec· tri city with a blade
136
lt[ S PE C T DIVF.RSITY
span the length of a footbal l field. Deve lopers Iik e the central-
ized infrastruc ture, but the high-powered trans miss ion lines
they require means new giant lowers ma rc hing over a once bu-
co li c landscape, in add iti on to the windmills the mselves. Al so,
modern windmills are not des igned as techni cal nutrients with
ecologicall y intelli gent mate rial s.
Think bac k to those famous Dutch landscape pa intings.
The windmi ll s were always located a mong the fa rms, a s hort
dis tan ce from the fi eld s, for <;onve nie nt water pumping a nd
milling. They were distributed across the land a t a sca le appro-
pri ate to it, a nd they we re made from safe local materials-and
looked beautiful to boot. ow imag ine one of the new windmill s
dis tribut ed on every few fa mil y farms in th e G reat Pl a in s. As
with sola r collectors, utilities could lease land from the fa nne rs
for thi s pu rpose, distributing the windmill s and the powe r th ey
gene rate in a way th a t optimi zes exis ting power lines a nd re-
quires few new ones. The farm e rs gel muc h-needed s upple-
me ntal income, and the utility gels to reap the power, whic h it
adds to the grid. One of our projects for a utomoti ve e ne rgy con-
ceives of wi nd power reaped in just t.hi s way; we ca ll it " Ride
the Wind. "
Th ose who have diffi culty imagining thi s becoming a major
source of e ne rgy mi ~;ltt cu11~ id e r wha t the treme ndow; indus trial
capacity tha t a llows th e Unit ed Stales to produ ce millions of
au tomobiles pe r year might do if a frac ti on of it we re app li ed
in thi s d irection. And with the new windm ills a lready cost-
e ffec ti ve and d irec tly competiti ve with fossil-fuel-d erived a nd
nu clea r e nergy in appropriate landscapes, there\; no reason
why it shouldn't be. Combin ed wi th intelligent appli cations of
137
r. I<A I) U~ TO GRAD U :
138
H ESPEC T DIVf.H S I TY
ing a nd grounds ma inte nance tha t obviates the need for pes ti -
c id es or irrigation. These features are in the process of being
optimize d- in its firs t summer, the building began to generate
more e nergy capital than it used- a s ma ll but hopeful s tart.
Imagine a building like a tree, a c ity like a forest.
Respec ting dive rs ity in des ign means cons id e ring not only how
a product is made but how it is t.o be used, a nd by whom. In a
c ra dl e-to-c radl e conce ption, it may have many uses, and ma ny
users , over time a nd s pace. An office building or store, for ex-
a mpl e, might be des igned so that it can be ada pte d to different
uses ove r many genera tion s of use, in stead of built for on e spe-
c ific purpose and late r torn down or awkwardl y re fiLLe d. The
So Ho a nd TriBeCa ne ighborhoods in lower Manh atta n continue
to thrive because th e ir buildings we re des igned with several
enduring advan tages that today would not be cons idered e ffi-
cie nt: they have hi gh ceilings a nd la rge, high windows tha t le t
in daylight , thi ck walls that ba la nce daytime heat with ni ght-
Lime coolness. Because of the ir attrac ti ve and use ful des ign,
these buildings have gone through many cycles of use, as wa re-
houses, showrooms, and work s hops, the n s torage and distri-
b ution centers, the n arti sts' loft s, a nd , more recently, offices,
galleries, a nd apartme nts. The ir appeal and use fuln ess is en-
duringly ap parent. F ollowing this lead, we' ve designe d some
corpora te bui ldings to be convertible to hou sing in the future.
!.ik e th e Fre nc h ja m pot s tha t co uld lw u;;t>d as drinking
139
(; It A Ill. t: T0 C ll A II L F
140
n E S P 1•: C T D I V " II :, I T Y
seeds of indi genous pl a nts tha t would take root as the pac kag-
ing deco mposes. Or people could wait to dis pose of the packag-
ing at th e next tra in stop, where local farm e rs a nd gardene rs
would have set up s ta tions to collect it for use in fertilizing
crops. We could even pla nt s igns that say " Please Liller."
141
CR ,\Ili.E TO C HADI.I:
142
R F,S PF. C T lliV E H S IT Y
143
C II A 1J u: 'I' 0 C H ,\ 1J I. f:
A Tapestry of Information
144
H~ S P ~CT UIVEHSITY
145
C HAIJI. I:: T O C HAIJI.E
146
BE SPEC T IJIVEil S IT Y
A Diversity of "Isms"
147
CBA IJI.f: TO CHAI1 L~:
ke t full of " mora l" people ma king indi vid ua l c hoi ces- a n idea l
of the e ig hteenth ce ntury, not necessaril y a rea lity of th e
twe nt y- fi rs l.
Unfair di stribu tion of wealth a nd worker exploita tion in -
s pired Ma rx a nd E ngels to write The Communist Manifesto,
in whic h they sounded a n alarm for the need to address hu -
ma n ri ghts a nd s ha re econo mic wea lth. "Masses of la bo re rs,
c rowded into th e fac tory, are organized like soldi e rs ... th ey
a re da ily a nd hourly e nslaved by the machin e, by the fore ma n,
a nd , a bove all , by th e individua l bourgeois ma nu fac ture r him -
se lf." While capita lis m ha d ofte n ignore d the inte rest of the
work er in the purs uit of its econom ic goals, soc iali sm, whe n
s in gle-minde d ly purs ued as an is m, als o fa iled. If nothing be-
lo ngs to anyone hut the s ta te, th e indi vidual can be dimini s hed
by th e syste m. This happe ned in the fo rme r USS R, whe re gov-
e rnme nt de ni ed fundamenta l hum an ri ghts s uc h as freedom of
speech. The e nviro nme nt a lso suffe re d: sc ie ntis ts have deemed
16 percent of the form er Sov ie t sta te unsafe to inh abit, due to
ind ustrial polluti on a nd conta mina ti o n so seve re it has been
te rmed "ecoc ide."
In the United Sta tes, Engla nd , a nd othe r co untries, cap i-
ta li sm Aouris he d, in so me places info rmed by a n inte rest in so-
c ia l we lfare combined with economic growth (for exa mple, with
H e nry F ord's recognition tha t "cars ca nnot buy cars") and
regul ated to reduce pollu tio n. Rut e nviro nme nta l proble ms
gre w. In 1962 Rac he l Carson's Silent Spring promoted a new
agenda-ecologis m- tha t s teadil y ga in ed a dhe re nts . Since
th e n, in response to growing e nvironme ntal concerns , indi vid u-
als, com muniti es, governme nt agenc ie;;, a nd e nvironmt:'ntal
148
11 f S P f I. T ll I V t: It S I T Y
groups have offe red va n ous stra tegies for protecting na ture,
conserving resources, a nd cl ean ing up polluti on.
All three of these manifestos were ins pired by a ge nuine
des ire to improve the huma n eondition, and all three had the ir
trium p hs as we ll as the ir perceived fa ilures. But taken to
extre mes- reduced to is ms -the stances they insp ired can
neglect fa ctors e ruc ial to long-term sueeess, s ueh as soeial fa ir-
ness, the di vers ity of huma n culture, th e hea lth of the e n vi ron-
ment. Carson se nt an important wa rning to the wo rl d, bu t even
eeo logiea l eoncern , s tretehed to an is rn, can neglect social, c ul-
tura l, a nd eco nomi c eoncern s to th e de triment of the whole
syste m.
" How ea n you work with them?" we a re often asked , re-
garding our willingness to work with eve ry sec tor of the econ-
omy, includ ing big corpora tions . To whi c h we sometimes re pl y,
" How ca n you not work with the m?" (We think of Emerson vis-
iting Thoreau wh e n he was j a iled for not pay ing his taxes- pa rt
of hi s c ivil di sohedie nee. "W ha t a re yo u doing in the re?"
Eme rson is said to have as ked , prompting Thoreau's fa mous re-
tort: " What a re you doing out there?")
Our questi oners ofte n be li eve tha t the inte rests of com-
me rce a nd the e nvironme nt are in he rentl y in conAie t, a nd tha t
env ironme ntalis ts who work with big bus in esses have sold oul.
And bus inesspeopl e have the ir own uiases about e nvironme n-
ta li sts a nd soc ia l ac ti vists, whom the y ofte n see as extre mists
promoti ng ugly, troublesome, low-teeh, a nd impossibly exp e n-
s ive designs a nd polic ies. The eo nventi onal wisdom seems to
be that yo u s it on one side of the fence or th e oth e r.
Some ph il osophies marry two of the ostensibly compet ing
149
CHAD U : TO CHAULE
ECO LOGY
EQU IT Y ECONO MY
150
K£ P £ C T DI V ER S ITY
151
C RAOI.E TO CllA O LE
152
llE S PEC T IJ I V E H S IT Y
The conve ntiona l des ign c riteri a are a tripod: cos t, aesthe tics,
a nd pe1forma nce. Can we profit from it? the compa ny as ks. Will
the cus tomer find it attractive? And will it work? Champions of
"s ustainable developme nt" like to use a "triple bottom lin e"
approac h based on the tripod of Ecology, Equity, and Economy.
Thi s approach has had a major pos itive eflect on efforts to in-
corporate s usta inability concerns into corporate a ccountability.
But in practi ce we fi nd tha t it often appea rs to center only
on economic cons iderations, with social or ecological benefits
cons idered as an afterthought rather th an given equal we ight at
the ou tset. Bus inesses calc ulate their conventional economi c
profitab ility and add to tha t what they perceive to be the social
benefits, with , perh aps, some redu ction in environmental dam-
age- lower emiss ions, fewer ma te rial s sent to a landfill ,
reduced materi als in the product itself. Jn othe r words, they
assess th eir health as they always have-economi ca ll y- and
153
C R AD L E TO C RA DLE
An Industrial Re-Evolution
154
RE SPECT DI VERS I TY
155
CUALJLJ-: TO CRADLE
leaves while it cycles water and makes oxygen ; the ant commu-
nity red is tributes the nutrients throughout the soil. We can
follow their cue to create a more inspiring engagement- a part-
nership-with nature. We can build fac tories whose products
a nd by-prod ucts nouri s h the ecosystem with biodegradable ma-
terial and recirculate technical ma teria ls instead of dumping,
burning, or burying them. We can design syste ms that regulate
themselves. Instead of using nature as a mere tool for human
purposes, we can s tri ve to become tools of nature who serve its
agenda too. We can celebrate the fecundity in the world, in-
stead of perpetuating a way of thinking a nd making that elimi -
nates it. And there can be many of us and the things we make,
because we have the right system- a creati ve, pros perou s, in -
telligent, and fertile system-and, lik e the ants, we will be "ef-
fecti ve."
156
Ch apter Six
Putting Eco-Effectiveness
into Practice
157
CHAD U : TO CHADLE
stery as it moved down the line, until the steel body and
chassis were dropped into an enormous baler. Admittedly the
process was primitive and driven by brute force more than so-
phisticated design, but it was a striking illustration of "waste
equals food" and an early step toward the reuse of industrial
materials. Eventually the Rouge covered hundreds of acres and
employed more than one hundred thousand people. It was a
popular touri st destination a nd an inspiration to artists. In his
photographs and paintings of the Rouge, Charles Sheeler por-
trayed the essence of a rational Ame rican ma nufacturing sys-
tem. Painter Diego Ri vera immorta li zed the fac tory from a
worker's pers pecti ve in his astonishing murals installed at the
Detroit Institute of the Arts.
By the end of the century, the facilities were showing their
age. Although Ford's Mustang was still made there, the ran ks of
employees had dwindled to under seven thousand through
divestiture, automation, a nd reduced integration. Over the
years the plant's infrastructure had deteri orated. Its technology
was outdated- the car plant, for example, was originall y co n-
structed in keeping with an assembly method in which parts
were dropped down from floor to floor and assembled in a
completed car on the bottom floor. Decades' worth of manufac-
turing processes had taken a toll on the soil and water. Major
parts of the site had become brownfield-abandoned industrial
land.
Ford Motor Company easily could have decided to do as
their competitors had done-to dose down th e site, put a fence
around it, and erect a new plant in a site where land was clean,
158
PUT TING ECO-E FFE C T I VENE SS I~TO PllA CT I CE
159
C U JID I.F. TO C RAIHF.
labels so that anyone walking through could see what was being
cons ide red in the way of socially, economically, and ecologi-
cally informed s ta ndards to measure the qualit y of air, ha bitat,
community, e nergy usc, e mployee relations, archit ec ture, and,
not least of a ll, production. Hundreds of employees came to th e
Rouge Room (j okingly referred to as a "peace room," as op-
posed to a "war room") durin g the process for s tructured meet-
ings or s impl y to meet (often for other purposes) in a pl ace
s uffused with so many of Ford's newly arti culated inte ntions.
The company's commitment to fin anc ia l secu rity had been
forged in the fire. Henry Ford had narrowl y s kirted ba nkruptcy
during World War 11, and se rious ly s truggled to get the com-
pany back on its feet. Ever s ince th en the bottom line has been
a solid focus for everything th e company does-every innova-
ti on mus t be good for profits. But the team had complete free-
dom to explore innovati ve ways of creating s hare holde r value,
and the company's conventi ona l decis ion-making process was
to be inJormed by all aspects of the fractal tool we disc ussed in
Chapter Five.
On ce Bill Ford opened th e door to the new thinking,
hundreds of e mployees across all sectors of the co mpa ny-
in manufacturing, su pply-c ha in manageme nt, purchas ing, fi-
nance, design, environmental qualit y, regula tory compli ance,
and research and development (not only at Ri ver Rouge) began
to come forward with ideas. Th ere was internal resis tance to
overcom e, to be s ure , an entrenched s kepticis m tha t saw envi-
ronme ntal strategies as at best extraneous to economi cs, and at
worst as inherently uneconomi c. One engineer burs t int o an
160
PUT T I NG u :0 - E ~- ~· t: C T I V ~; N t: S S I N T 0 P I< A C T I C E
161
C RADL E TO C RADLE
162
PU TT ING E C O - EF'FECT I VENESS I N TO PRA CT I CE
163
C IIAil L £ TO C RAIJLF:
convinc ing: the new fac ility would be dayli t-cvcn th e cafete-
ria, so tha t worke rs could get to day light even on a short
break- as He nry Fo rd's origina l fa c tories had been, in a n age
of le s e nergetic e lec tri ca l syste ms . It wou ld have high ceili ngs,
p lenty of unobs truc ted views, a nd {as a safe ty measure) super-
visors' offices and team wo rk rooms on a mezzani ne lo reduce
th e ri s k of acc ide nts. Th e team also adopted Torn Ki ser's way of
vie wing the building as a giant duct -a nd focusi ng on heating
a nd cooling the people in the building rathe r than th e building
itself (see Cha pte r Fi ve).
Ford sees Ri ve r Houge as a laboratory where it can test
ideas it hopes will tra ns late into a new way of des igning for
ma nufac ture worl dwide . Cons ide ring, for e xa mple , tha t th e
compa ny a lone owns a pproximately 200 milli on sq uare feet
of roofing a round the wo rld , successfu l in nova tions could be
qui c kl y imple mented at indus try-t ransformi ng sca le. The spe-
c ific solutions mus t grow out of a nd res pond to loca l c irc um-
s ta nces, however. A green roof might work in I. Pete rs burg,
F lorida, but not in St. Pe te rs burg, Russ ia. Already the work a t
Hi ve r Houge has led to a revie w of oth e r Ford pla nts whe re
windmills a nd so la r co llectors could make economic e nse if
they are conceived as prod uc ts of service within a total energy
pac kage. The compa ny':; overa rc hing decis ion is to become na-
ti ve to each place. From th at decis ion, .loca l solut ions follow,
a re adopted and adapted e lsewhere as appropriate , a nd a re
continuall y revised a nd refin ed, e ffec ting a profounci process of
c ha nge tha t may ult imat e ly e mbrace every aspect of what a
company makes and how it is produced, marketed, sol d , a nd
cycled on. A redes igned automobi le factory may ultima tely re-
164
P U TTI\ G EC O -J:: f t' ECT I V E I'\ E S S 11\ T O P U A C T I C E
165
CRADLE TO CRADLE
166
I' L T T I ~ G E<: 0 • 1: F F 1: C T I \' E ~ E S S I ~ r0 P K A CT I C E
167
C H ADLE TO C H ADLE
ous kinds. A few auto manufacture rs have phased out the use of
mercmy switc hes in cars-Volvo, whi ch has bee n address ing
these issues for years, a lso has a p lan for phasing out PVC-
but most have nol. An indus tries-wide phaseout of mercury for
thi s use is, from ou r pers pecti ve, cruc ia l.
The dec is ion to c reate produ cts that are free of obvious ly
harmful substances forms the rud ime nts of what we ca ll a "de-
sign filter" : a filter that is in th e des igner's head ins tead of on
the ends of pipes. At thi s s tage, th e filter is fa irly crude -
equ ivalent to the dec ision not to include any items that might
make your guests s ick, or that they are known to be allergic to,
when plan ning the menu for your d inne r part y. But it is a s ta rt.
168
I' U T TIN C E C 0- f: F F f: C T I V f: N f: S, I ~ T 0 I' K ACT I C f:
meant impo rting bulbs from Germa ny, a nd while the y preferred
the qua lity of li ght (ami kne w it would ma ke the workers feel
good), th ey did not know mu ch a bout the c hemi ca ls in the
hulhs or thP. ~ irr~umstancP.s of the ir ma nufac ture. For th ese and
o the r des ign decis ions, the team ma de c hoi ces based o n the
best info rma ti o n ava ila bl e to the m, a nd on their aes theti c judg-
me nt. Jt would not dolo se lec t una ttractive things just because
they had mo re e nviro nme nta l a uthority-a n ugly fa c ility was
not wha t they were hired to build.
Whe n BiU began dealing with these issues as a n a rc hitec t
111 the 1970s a nd 1980s, he be lieved his j oh was to find the
ri ght things to put togethe r, and he thought those things were
alread y some whe re in the wo rld . The proble m was s imply to
find wha t and where they were. But it didn ' t La ke him long lo
discove r that few truly eco-effec live compon e nts fo r a rc hitec-
ture a nd design existed, a nd he hega n to see that he could he lp
to mak e the m. By the Lime we me l, Mi c hael's thinking had
e volved in a s imila r directi on, a nd the future course of our work
togethe r wa s c lear.
Th e truth is, we are s ta nding in the middl e of a n e no rmou s
marketpl a ce fill ed with ingredie nts tha t are la rgely unde fin ed :
we know liLLie a bout what they a re made of, a nd how. And
based o n what we do kno w, for th e mos t part the news is not
good ; mos t of the produc ts we have a nal yzed do not meet truly
eco-e fl ec ti ve des ign c rite ria . Ye t dec is ions have to IJe made to-
day, forc ing upon the des igne r th e d if~ cult q uesti o n of whi ch
ma terials are sound e nou gh to use. Peopl e a re coming for din-
ne r in a few hours, a nd they expect to-need to-eat. Despite
the as toni s hing pauc ity of h ea lthy, nutritio us ingredi ents, and
169
CH~Ili.F: 1'0 CRADLE
the mys te ry s urrounding, say, genetica lly mod ifi ed c rops (to
carry the me taphor furthe r), we cannot put off cooking until
pe rfect ion has been achi eved .
You mi ght dec ide, as a pe rsona l prefe re nce, to be a vege-
taria n ("free of " meat), or not to consume meat from an ima ls
that have been fed hormones (anoth er " free of" s tra tegy). But
what a bout the ingredie nts you do use? Being a vegetarian does
not tell you exac tly how the produce you are us ing has been
grown or ha nd led . You might prefe r organicall y grown spinac h
to conventionall y grown pin ach, bu t without knowing more
a bout th e processor's packaging and tra nsportation me thods,
you can't be certain tha t it is safe r or be tt e r for th e e nvironme nt
un less you grow it yourse lf. But we mus t begin some whe re, and
odds are tha t as an initial ste p, cons id ering these issues and ex-
pressing your prefe re nces in the c hoi ces you ma ke will result
in greate r ceo-effecti veness tha n had you not conside red the m
at a ll.
Many rea l-l ife decis ions come down to compa ring two
things tha t a re both less tha n ideal, as in the case of c hlorine-
free paper ve rsus recycled pa pe r. You may find yourself c hoos-
ing be tween a pe troc he mi cal-based fabric a nd an " all natural"
colton tha t was produced with the help of large amount s of
pe truche mi call y gene rated nitrogen fe1tilizcrs a nd s!J·ip-min ed
radioac tive phosphates, not to me ntion in sec tic ides a nd he rbi-
c ides . And beyond what you know lurk othe r troubli ng ques-
tions of soc ial equity a nd broade r ecological ramifications .
Whe n the choice is consiste ntly between the frying pan and thP.
lire, th e c hooser is apt to feel he lpless a nd frustrated , whi c h is
why a more profound approar h to redesign is crit ical. Bu t in the
170
I'UT TI~G E CO -EFFE C TIVF:~ ESS I N TO PRA CT I CE
171
CllAI) Lt; T O Cll •l ll l. t:
172
PIJ T TI 1. ~ C0-£ H' £t; TI VU\E:SS I TO P flA C T I C ~:
173
CRAI>LF TO C RAOI. F:
gen ic? How is the product used , a nd what is its end s ta te?
What are the effec ts a nd poss ib le effects on the local and
global commu niti es?
Once screened, subs tances are placed on the foll owing
lists in a kind of technica l triage that assigns grea te r and less
urgency to proble ma tic s ubsta nces:
The g ray list. The gray li st conta ins proble ma tic ~ u b~ l <trl cco;
that are not qu ite so urge ntly in need of phaseout. The li s t also
includes prob le ma tic s ub la nces tha t a re es e nti a) for ma nu -
facture, a nd for whi ch we c urre ntly have no viable s ubsti tutes.
Cadmium, for example, is highly toxic, but for th e time being, it
cont inues to be used in the produ c tion of photovo ltaic sola r col-
lectors. If the e a re made a nti ma rke ted as produc ts of se rvice.
174
I' LTTI (, ECO-t:tt't:CTJ\ E E!>!> I'<TO J'IIACTJCE
with the manufac turer reta ining owners hip of the cad mi um
molecules as a lec hnica l nutri ent, we might even co ns ider thi s
an appropriate, safe u e of the materi al- at leasl until we ca n
reth ink the des ign of solar collectors in a more profound wHy.
On the othe r hand , cadmium in the contex t of household bat-
te ries-which may e nd up in a ga rbage dump or, worse, a ir-
h orne by a "was te -to-energy" inc inerator- is a more urge ntly
problema tic use.
The P list. This is ou r " pos itive lis l," sometimes referred lo as
our " preferred lis t." II includes substa nces actively defined as
healthy and safe for use. In gene ral, we cons ider:
F'or the mome nt, pass1ve redes ign of the producl s lays
with in its cu rrenl fra me wo rk of production; we ar e s im ply ana-
lyzing our ingred ie nts and ma ki ng sub ·titut ions whe re possible,
175
<. II A Ill. E T O C R A 0 L ~
176
P UTTI~G f~ CO- f:FFE C 'I'IVf: ~E SS 1\'1' 0 1'11 ,\ C TI C E
alte r the ingredi e nts lis t- the c ustome r wants a blue ju st like
the old blu e. Ju st confro nting th e comple xity of a given produc t
can be daunting-imagine discovering (as we d id) tha t a s im-
pl e, everyday produ c t used widel y in ma nufacturing has 138
known o r suspected hazardous ingre di e nts. Ye t thi s s tage is the
beginning of real c ha nge, a nd the in ve nto ry process can galva-
nize creativity. It may s timula te the de ve lopme nt of a ne w prod-
uc t line th a t will avoi d the proble ms a ssoc ia ted with the old
produ e l. As s ueh, it re prese nts a paradigm shift and leads d i-
rec tl y to . ..
177
C 11 A D L E T 0 C R A Il l. E
Step 5. Reinvent.
Now we are doing more than des igning fo r biol.ogical and tech-
nical cycles. We are recasting the des ign ass ignment: not "de-
178
PLTT I NG E C O-EFFECT I VENESS I NTO I'BA C T I C E
s ign a car" but "des ign a ' nutrive hicle.' " Ins tead of aiming to
create cars with minimal or zero negati ve emissions, imagine
cars des igned to release positive emissions and ge nerate oth er
nutritious effects on th e environment. The car's engine is
treated like a c hemi cal plant modeled on natural systems.
Everything the car emits is nutritious for nature or industries.
As it burns fuel , the water vapor in its e miss ions could be cap-
Lured, turned back into water, and made use of. (Currentl y the
ave rage car e mits approximately four fifths of a gaJion of wa te r
vapor into the air for every gallon of gas it burns.) Instead of
ma king the catalytic convert er as small as possible , we might
develop the mean s to use nitrous ox ide as a ferti li zer and con-
figure our car to ma ke and s tore as mu ch as possible while dri v-
ing. Instead of releas ing the carbon th e car produces when
burning gasoline as carbon d ioxide, why not s tore it as carbon
blac k in canisters that could be sold to rubber manufacturers?
Using fluid mechanics, tires could be designed to a ttract a nd
capture harmful particles, thus cleaning the air instead of fur-
the r d irtying it. And , of eou rse, aJter th e e nd of its useful life,
a ll the ea r's materia ls go back to the biological or technical
cyc le.
P us h th e design assignme nt further: " Design a new trans-
portation infras tructure." ln othe r words, don 't just re invent the
recipe , re think th e menu.
Most tra ns portation infrastructu re sprawls and devours
valu able natural habitat or land that could be used for housing
and agriculture . (The amount of s pace devoted to roads in E u-
rope is curre ntly equal to the spaee used for hous ing, and the
179
CH .~/li.E TO CH ,\DI.E
two compe te with agri c ulture.) Conven ti ona l deve lopme nt a lso
de pl etes quali ty of life, wi th traffic noi se, exha ust, and ugliness.
A nutri vehiele tha t doesn't emi t fou l exhaust opens the way to a
ne w approach to highways. T hey could be covered over, provid-
ing new green space for hous ing, agriculture, or recre a tio n.
(This might requ ire less effort t han it appears to. In ma ny
places, roadways a re among th e littl e pub li c s pace s till fla nked
by field s of green.)
If the re a re three times as ma ny cars 111 twe nty years as
the re are today on the plane t, of course, it won' t rna ll er very
mu c h if they are highl y effi c ie nt ultralight cars made from ad -
vanced ca rbon fib ers a nd get a hu ndre d mi les to a gall o n, or are
even nutrive hi r les. The plane t wil l be c rawling with cars, and
we will need othe r options . A more far-rangin g ass ig nme nt?
" Des ign tra ns portation. "
Sound fanc iful ? Of course. But re member, the car itself
was a fa nc iful notion in a wo rl d of horse a nd carri age.
180
P l T T I N (, U : 0 - 1: f f r CT I I £ £ S~ I ~T 0 PR ~ CT IC E
181
C RAil L E TO CRAIJLE
the~n
Signal your inlention. Commit to a new paradigm , rather
to inc remental improveme nt of t he old. For exampl e, whe n a
Dn
bus iness leader say , "We are go ing to make a olar-pow ered
product, " that is a s ignal s trong enough for everyone to unde r-
stand the compan y's pos iti ve inte ntions, particula rly s ince total
a nd immedia te c ha nge is d iffic ult i n a marke t dominate d by the
status quo. In th is case, the int e ntion is not to be slightly more
e ffic ie nt, to improve on th e old mode l, but to change the frame-
work itself.
Employees "down on the ground" need to have this vis ion
111 place at the top, especia lly as they encounte r resistanc e
182
I' UTT I NG t:CO-F:FFF:CT I \ E ~ E SS I T O 1' 1\ACTI C E
183
C R .~IlLE TO CRAD L E
184
PUTT I ~G ECO -I::FFEC TI V E~E SS I N TO PRACTICJ::
evo lved as a secon dary use for limbs with feathers for warmth .)
Biologis t Ste phen ]ay Goul d has captured this concept nicely
in a way that can be useful to indus try: "All biological struc-
tures (at all scales from genes to organs) maintain a capac ity for
massive redundancy- tha t is, for bu ilding more s tuff or infor-
mation than minimally needed to maintain an adaptation. The
'extra' material then becomes available for cons tructing evolu-
tionary novelties because e nough remains to perform the origi-
nal , and still necessary, fun cti on." Form follows evolution.
You may not even know today what it is that you need to
grow in the future, but if all of your resources are tied up in ba-
sic operations, there won' t be anything extra to allow for inno-
vation a nd experimentation. The ability to ada pt and innovate
requires a " loose fit"-room for growing in a new way. Ra ther
tha n spend all its time and money fine-tuning an ex is ting vehi -
cle, for example, an automobile manufacturer might also be de -
s igning another car on the side: an innovative vehicle based on
"feedforward." Innovati ve design ta kes time to evolve, but rest
ass ured, in len years th e "perfect" vehicle of today will be a
thing of the past, and if you don' t have the new new thi ng, one
of your competitors will.
185
CRA IHE TO C R ADLE
186
Notes
187
NOTES
luters in Ce ntral Stales," The New York 11m.es, May 16, 200 1, and Linda
Greenhouse, " EPA's Authori ty on Air Hules Wins Supr<'me Court 's Back-
ing," The New York Times. Fe bruary 8, 200 1.
33 us pbalt und c onc r e t e: In 1996 the impervious s urfaces of the tristate
metropo lita n region a round ew York-the roads, build ings, pa rking lots.
and nonliving parts -were meas ured at 30 percent. A generation ago this
figure was 19 pe rcent. The projec tion for 2020 is 4-5 percent. See To ny
Hiss and Hobert D. Ya ro, A l?egion at Risk: The Third Negionnl Plan
for the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut Metro/)olitan Area (Washington,
D.C.: Is land Press, 1996), 7.
35 s ii rgle -m.inded c ultiva tion: Wcs Jackson has pointed out tha t the prai rie
as it was, with a ll of its di versity and grasses, ac tually produced more
carbohydrates and protein pe r hectare than modern agriculture. !Jut con-
ventional agricult ure has not engaged this rich ecosystem on its own
te rms .
35 " a simplifier of eco syst.e ms": Paul H. Ehrlic h, Anne II. Ehrlich, and
J ohn P. Holdren, E:coscience: Popula.tion, Resources, Environment (San
f ra ncisco: W. II . Freeman, 1970), 628.
3 5 re tun1ing complexity: Ma ny fo rms of "organic" agriculture tha t cele-
brate complexity and pnx luct ivity are being df've lopcd a round the world
with rota tions of animals and pla nts. For details, see the work of S ir Albert
ll oward, J. T. Hoda lc, Masunobu Fukuoka, Joel Salntin, and Michael Pol-
lan . Anothe r example of "homeostatic" (not s ingle-puq)Ose rnonocultural)
fanning, accord ing to \Vcs J ackson, is the Amish agric·nltura l method.
37 u s i.mpl.is tic economic fig ure: For an in-de pt h discussion of the GOP's
fa ilures and a presenta tion of new measure ments for projl;r!'ss. see Clifford
Cobb, Ted Halsted. a nd J onathan Rowe, " If the GDP Is Up, Why Is Amer-
ica Down'?," Atlantic Monthly, Octo ber 1995, 59.
38 S ince 1987: Mi chael 13ra unga rt ct al., " Poor Design Practices-Gaseous
Em issions from Complex Prod urts," Project. Report (Humburg, Germa ny:
Hamburger Umweltinst ilut, 1997), 47.
3 9 " a for mal ris k usso•ssnwnt" : Wayne H. Orr and John W. Hoberts,
188
'IOTE S
189
1\0rt: s
ronmental Solutiomfor Wh o \Ve l?eally Are (New York: Balla ntine Books,
1998), 26, 74.
5 1 " What we thought was boundless": Joan Magrelta, ··Growth Through
Sus tainability: An Interview with ~l o nsa nto's C[O. Robert B. Shapiro."
1/arvard Business Review (Ja nua ry- February 1997). R2.
51 " You must get the mos t" : Quoted in Joseph J. llomm. l..ean and Clean
lV/(utagement: Now to /Joost. Profits and Produrtivity by !<educing Pollution
(New York: Kodansha Ame rica, J 994), 2 1.
52 " Industries and indust o·ial ope o·utions" : World Cornrnission on Envi-
ronment and Development, Our Common Futur<' (Oxford a nd ew York:
Oxford University Press. 1987), 2 13.
52 " Within a decadf'" : Stephan Sclomidheiney, "Eco-Efli<'ieney a nd Sus-
tainable Development.'' Risk Management 43:7 (1996). S I.
53 mm''' tloan $750 million: 3M. ·'Pollut ion Prevention Pays.'' htt p://www.
:3nr.t·om/about3m/environ mcort/policies_a bou t31'.j ht orrI.
53 a lmos t 70 p•·rc<'nt : Gary Le('. ' "rhe Three H's of Manufactu ring: Hecy-
d,., Heuse, Heduce Waste.'' Washington Post, February 5, 1996, A3.
5 4 a g roundbrf'aking r••poo·t: Theo Colbom, Dianne Dumanoski, and John
Pe te rson Myers, Our . /olen Future ( 1ew York: Penguin Group. 1997). X\ i.
54 new res<>ar c lo on luu·ti<·ooluh•s: ~lary Beth Hcgan. ''The Dustup Over
Dus t,'' /Jusine.1.1 Week, Det·rrnber 2, 1996, L19.
59 two fundume nt.al syrulo·mnes: Jane Jacobs. Systems of Surm:val: A Dia-
logue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics (New York : Vin-
tage Books, 1992).
65 no indepe nde nt " " " "'' For a u interesting discussion of the ''value'' of
e fficiency. see James Hillmau. Kinds of Power: A Guide to Its flltelligenl
Uses (.\ ew York: Doublt'day, 1995), :13-44.
190
OTES
191
~OTf: S
lhal have adopted the conccpl so far have yet cornpletely remalerialized
lhe solvenl as a technical nutrirnl.
192
Acknowledgments
193
\1 II II\ \1 MCDO'WL (,I I i~ au tn t·hilt•t•l u11d II II' fou nd i n~ prinl'ipa l of
\\'ill ium Mc· Donough + l)u rtlw~. \ n·hih•t·lult' and Communi!) Dt'~ i gn .
ha~t·d in C harlott t'~l ill t•, \irgi nia. From 199 1 In 1999 lw ~t'nt'd a~
"t'l'liuu for Grel:' npt•at'l'. Si iH't' II)H I lw ha, bt't'n lt'l'ltn iug al uniH•r,i-
l it·~. hu ... i ne~~<':-. and in ~ l i lul i u n ... a mu ud 1111' 1\0rld uu ni lil'al nt'll <'lll l-
t't'Jlh for PI'Oiugi<'u l l' l wm i ~l n and malt'rial... fl o11 mu uagt•meul. Dr.
llrauugurt i;. lilt' n·t·ipit·nl of uu u wrou~ houo~. <mank and fi' IIOII-
-.hip' from thP ll l'i llt Eudull lll\'111. the \\ . \ hun J u u t·~ Foundation. and
uth..r orga uiw liuu....
Tn J995 the authors c reated Mc Donough Bra ungart Design
Che mistry, a produc t and systems deve lopme nt firm ass is ting c lient
companies in impleme nting their unique susta ining des ign protocol.
The ir c lie nts inc lude Ford Motor Company, Nike, He rman Miller,
BAS F, DesignTex, Pe ndleton, Volvo, and the c ity of Chicago. The
c ompany's Web s ite can be found at www.mbdc.com.
.,....... ...._ nqc~e.• ~~g~IIWIRII,_IIIIIIta; In olhlr WOlds. do men ..,.._In
order to "**niie dlmlgt. aut • an:1111ct Wllllm Mc:Donoust~n ct.n~~t MlchMI
Brulglrt polrit out In thll pnMICIIIIve, vlllonlry book. IUCh ., ~ only
. , . , . . . . the one-way. "cndde to WfNfi' manufacUing modal, dlllng to the lndullrlal
Revolution, that~ IUCh f8ntaltlc emounta of waste and pollution In the flrlt
.,_,Why not~ the belief that humin lndultry must dan'lage the nelUrll world?
In filet. why not tiMI'IIbn lllllf • cu modal for rnllclng thlngl? A tNe ~
~cl bloeeomlln order to Cleale anot1w tNe, y.t we conlldlr .. lluldlnce
not...a.ftjbul ..... ~ ... ~elleciM.
Cover d•J.&n by Ja.nlne Jam.. /'lbe Modems U.S.A. 126.00 I ea... "' oo
Envll'onmenl/ O..lp
~r North Point Press ISBN-13 978-G-86547·587-8
A dlvl8lon or Farrar. &rau• and Olrowr. ISBN-10: o-86547-587·3