opfauction.blogg.se

I include that, not to disparage that perspective, but to remind people that other perspectives do exist.

I say all that with the small disclaimer that the tone and choice of words do carry a white/western/male perspective. The concepts discussed are fascinating, and more importantly, NECESSARY TO IMPLEMENT, if there is to be any hope of future quality of life on planet Earth. After finally listening to it, years later, in full, I am still quite impressed.

I came across this book as a tenth grader and found the first few pages mind-blowing at the time. 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).Įlaborating their principles from experience redesigning everything from carpeting to corporate campuses, the authors make an exciting and viable case for change. "Waste equals food" is the first principle the book sets forth. 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. They challenge the notion that human industry must inevitably damage the natural world. William McDonough and Michael Braungart argue in this provocative book that this approach perpetuates a one-way, "cradle to grave" manufacturing model that dates back to the Industrial Revolution, a model that casts off as much as 90 percent of the materials it uses as waste, much of it toxic. In other words, do more with less in order to minimize damage. "Reduce, reuse, recycle," urge environmentalists.