"Environmentalists too rarely apply the ecological wisdom of life to our problems. Asking how a cherry
tree would design an energy efficient building is only one of the creative 'practices' that McDonough and Braungart
spread, like a field of wild flowers, before their readers. This book will give you renewed hope that, indeed,
'it is darkest before the dawn'."
--Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club
"Achieving the great economic transition to more equitable, ecologically sustainable societies requires nothing
less than a design revolution--beyond today's fossilized industrialism. This enlightened and enlightening book
shows us how--and indeed, that 'God is in the details.' A must for every library and every concerned citizen."
--Hazel Henderson, author of Building a Win-Win World and Beyond Globalization: Shaping a Sustainable Global
Economy
Publisher Web Site, November, 2002
Summary
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 William McDonough and Michael Braungart argue in their provocative, visionary book, however, this approach
perpetuates a one-way, "cradle to grave" manufacturing model that dates to the Industrial Revolution
and 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.
In fact, why not take nature itself as our model? A tree produces thousands of blossoms in order to create another
tree, yet we do not consider its abundance wasteful but safe, beautiful, and highly effective; hence, "waste
equals food" is the first principle the book sets forth. Products might be designed so that, after their useful
life, they provide nourishment for something new-either as "biological nutrients" that safely re-enter
the environment or as "technical nutrients" that circulate within closed-loop industrial cycles, without
being "downcycled" into low-grade uses (as most "recyclables" now are).
Elaborating their principles from experience (re)designing everything from carpeting to corporate campuses, the
authors make an exciting and viable case for change.
Table of Contents
Introduction: This Book Is Not a Tree
p. 3
A Question of Design
p. 17
Why Being "Less Bad" Is No Good
p. 45
Eco-Effectiveness
p. 68
Waste Equals Food
p. 92
Respect Diversity
p. 118
Putting Eco-Effectiveness into Practice
p. 157
Notes
p. 187
Acknowledgments
p. 193
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.