Cradle to Cradle

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. by William McDonough Michael Braungart. reduce, reuse recycle urge environmentalists, in other words do more with less in order to minimise the damage. but as this visionary book points out, such an approach only perpetuates the one-way cradle to grave manufacturing model. 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. guided by these principles, the authors 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 eeasily reenter the water or soil without depositing synthetic materials or toxins. or they can be technical nutrients that will continually circulate as pure and valuable materials within closed-loop industrial cycles, rather than being downcycled into low-grade materials and uses. Drawing on their experience in (re)designing everything from carpeting to corporate campuses, the authors 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.