Cradle to Cradle

Description

"Reduce, reuse, recycle," urge environmentalists; in other words, do more with less in order to minimize damage. But as architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart point out in this provocative, visionary book, such an approach only perpetuates the one-way, "cradle to grave" manufacturing model, dating to the Industrial Revolution, that creates such fantastic amounts of waste and pollution in the first place. Why not challenge the belief that human industry must damage the natural world? In fact, why not take nature itself as our model for making things? A tree produces thousands of blossoms in order to create another tree, yet we consider its abundance not wasteful but safe, beautiful, and highly effective. Waste equals food. Guided by this principle, McDonough and Braungart explain how products can be designed from the outset so that, after their useful lives, they will provide nourishment for something new. They can be conceived as "biological nutrients" that will easily reenter the water or soil without depositing synthetic materials and toxins. Or they can be "technical nutrients" that will continually circulate as pure and valuable materials within closed-loop industrial cycles, rather than being "recycled"--really, downcycled--into low-grade materials and uses. Drawing on their experience in (re)designing everything from carpeting to corporate campuses, McDonough and Braungart make an exciting and viable case for putting eco-effectiveness into practice, and show how anyone involved with making anything can begin to do so as well.

Description

A manifesto for a radically different philosophy and practice of manufacture and environmentalism. "Reduce, reuse, recycle," urge environmentalists--in other words, do more with less in order to minimize damage. As this book argues, however, this approach perpetuates a one-way "cradle to grave" manufacturing model that casts off as much as 90 percent of the materials it uses as waste, much of it toxic. Why not challenge the notion that human industry must inevitably damage the natural world, they ask. Products might be designed so that, after their useful life, they provide nourishment for something new. Elaborating their principles from experience (re)designing everything from carpeting to corporate campuses, the authors make an exciting and viable case for change.--From publisher description.

Subjects

Other Editions

• Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make ThingsNorth Point Press2002-01-01
• Cradle to CradlePaperbackNorth Point Press2002-01-01
• Cradle to CradleLibrary BindingTandem Library2002-04-01
• Cradle to CradlePenguin Random House2008-01-01
• Cradle to CradlePenguin Random House2009-01-01
• Cradle to CradleeBookRandom House Publishing Group2009-01-01