Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things

its one thing to talk about a problem, its quit another thing to do something about it. I am glad to see the authors not only introducing a new angle to an ever growing problem i.e. the trouble with down-cycling, but also providing an alternative. This book is certainly ahead of its time.

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things is SO important that every single person on earth should read it. The authors, McDonough & Braungart, have researched so extensively and present the material so intelligently, it is truly a Text Book For Humans!

A book about innovators who were working on the green revolution before the rest of the world caught on. This book will have value for generations to come. It is written for all of those who love our planet. Examples of how the commercial and industrial world can still thrive and prosper while we make the Earth a better place.

possible book themes

- negligence starts tomorrow :: once you've been informed, your responsibility is heightened.

- waste equals food :: right now, waste is waste. because earth's resources are finite, this will inevitably end either because we run out of resources or we choose to start using our waste in the idea of 'waste-to-food' (where waste can be used as raw materials for new goods beyond that of conventional recycling).

- outside the box :: research and development are necessary to recreate the current products by using new materials and/or rethinking the products altogether.

what this book is not

- a handbook on the products that will improve people's health, the economy, or the environment (although, examples are mentioned that do all of these and may inspire).

- a designers guide to saving the world. this book is a primer for this change, making the solid argument that change is necessary and offering examples of how this may be done, however, it does not offer a cut-and-dry method to how to make these improvements. that is where R&D and innovation come in. each problem may have a unique solution.

- a numbers book. instead, this is an 'ideas book'.

what the book is

- responsible :: working on the principle that there are finite physical goods that humanity has to work with, the authors make the simple and convincing argument that the throw-away (cradle-to-grave) economy cannot go on forever. goods are being lost for future generations. society will inevitably have to come to grips with this reality and become responsible with natural resources, creating a 'cradle-to-cradle' economy with no (ie, negligible) waste. the authors suggest that we aren't in balance with regeneration of natural resources (which is indisputable) and that we must reach this balance and in the process we should (ideally) become symbiotic with the earth. [this sounds more fluffy than how it reads.]

- practical & innovative :: this book discusses a new approach to design and suggests new ways to think about products and consumption/destruction (consumption does not need incorporate destruction). this is why i would call this book a design primer. the authors are not about condemnation. they instead want designers to rethink products that hurt people and the environment and they look to inspire innovation. some questions now seem so obvious that the reader is left to wonder why so many products are created the way they are. what about product A hurts the consumer? (ex, it 'off-gases' chemicals the consumer inhales without knowing it.) what about product A hurts the environment and future generations? (ex, in production it contaminates the land around the product factory.) how can we get rid of these bad characteristics and/or create good characteristics in product A? (ex, the problem of sewage. instead of sending it 'away', prevent sewage from being contaminated by chemicals and then use it as a very rich fertilizer like has been done for centuries/millenniums in some other cultures.) the authors do not propose going to all means necessary to eliminate all bad product characteristics tomorrow but advise the reader/designers to look beyond basic 'improvements' such as using additional dangerous chemicals to counteract the other dangerous chemicals or substituting dangerous chemical C for dangerous chemical B since B is well known but the public hasn't caught onto C yet. instead the authors ask designers, engineers, and anyone else listening to rethink the problem from more perspectives and actually try to improve the product for both public and environmental health. [the authors give several examples where this unconventional thinking is economical.]

- realistic :: the authors propose that society shifts from products made to be thrown away (lots of products are currently like this) to products that do less harm (some products are in this stage), then to products that do little or no harm (very few products in this stage), and finally to products that do no harm or are actually good for environment in production and use (any products in this stage?). never do they give a time line for how long this will take. that's left for the product designers, engineers, chemists, and all the rest of us to realize... how long will it take for us to catch on?

- well designed :: the book itself is a book rethought. it seems to be somewhere between stage 2 and 3 (my stages 2 and 3 differ slightly from the book's... they have 5 stages). it is not paper but plastic that may be recycled (in some areas) and reused as high-quality material. it is durable, well designed, and waterproof. the authors are careful to note that this book design isn't yet in stage 4 [this review's description of stage 4] but is an intermediary. it is better than paper books in that it can be 'upcycled' (used as quality recycling as opposed to 'downcycled' or conventional recycling) but is not yet the ideal book (it gives off chemicals in the air like all other books, which is something to improve upon).

the ideas expressed in the masterpiece well get us through the next trails that our planet is going through