Natural Capitalism: The Next Industrial Revolution

Our present industrial system is based on technology created 200 years ago.. It requires enormous heat and pressure. It is petrochemically dependent. It is materials-intensive. It is extremely inefficient.

Inefficiencies Only 6% of raw materials used to produce goods end up as products. The ratio of waste to durable products is 100 : 1. The economy is less than 10% as energy-efficient as the laws of physics permit.

Traditional poor designs can last for generations, even centuries, because they are Known to work Convenient Easily copied Seldom questioned.

For example, the space between the tracks of modern railways can be traced back to 18th century wagons, which in turn can be traced back to medieval designers measuring the ruts in ancient roads built by the Romans 2000 years ago.

Natural Capitalism Introduces a visionary concept that regards business, environmental, and social interests as an integrated, harmonious system. Uses concept of design by efficiency instead of tradition. Demonstrates that such an approach can SAVE BUSINESSES MONEY! Documents cost savings with dozens of real-world examples.

Some key concepts Lean thinking. Net shape manufacturing. Whole system engineering.

Lean thinking works to eliminate waste in production, such as Mistakes which require correction. Production of items no one wants. Unnecessary processing steps. Having people standing around waiting for parts.

Net shape manufacturing Makes virtually every molecule of material fed into the production process emerge into a useful product. For example, a tricycle was re- designed from 126 parts to 26 parts, saving 75% of the cost of production.

Whole-system engineering Mimics nature. Looks at the life cycle of a product or building, instead of each part in isolation. Taking things in isolation is like nature creating a pelican without creating fish. Uses compounding efficiencies to reduce raw material or energy usage.

Case study 1: Motors Use 60% of the world’s energy. Industrial motors use pumps, often running 24/7. Most of a pump’s energy is used to fight friction.

Power plant = 70% Transmission and distribution = 9% Motor = 10% Pump = 25% Throttle = 33% Pipes = 20% Typical pumping system compounding losses Thus 90% of fuel is wasted!

Case Study 2: Office building design Consider an actual 200,000 square foot building in Chicago. The cooling load was reduced by 85% by using…

Super energy efficient windows. Deep daylighting. Efficient lights and office equipment.

With this savings, the air conditioning unit Could be 3/4 of the size of the original unit. 4 times as efficient. Cost $200,000 less, a sum which paid for all the other improvements. The annual energy bill fell by 75%.

Case Study 3: Contemporary automobile After 100 years it is embarrassingly inefficient. It has many protrusions, edges, and seams that block air flow. Tires waste energy by flexing and heating up. The disparity between the engine’s large output capability and its modest normal loads cuts its normal loads efficiency by 50%. Thus only 1% of energy propels the car!

The re-designed car In 1991, the first test model car was created by a research institute and the design was put in the public domain, or open-sourced. This created competition and adoption.

It needs a lighter structure and suspension to support the weight. A smaller engine to move it. Smaller brakes to stop it. Less fuel to run the engine. Power steering and power brakes are not needed for lighter-weight cars. Using compounding, making a car one pound lighter, actually makes it one and one-half pound lighter, for

Electric or hybrid cars: Use no energy when idling. Are very efficient – they convert up to 90% of the electricity produced into traction. Can recover electricity by deceleration.

Ultra-light cars Wind resistance can be cut by 40-60% by streamlining details such as making the car’s underside as smooth as the top and slightly smaller frontal area. Use carbon-fiber composites that can cut weight by 2 to 3 times. Crash tests have proven that ultra-light cars are at least as safe as standard cars. Can be cheaper and more durable than traditional cars, since they have fewer moving parts.

These key concepts and case studies are just the tip of the iceberg for natural capitalism. They concentrate on manufacturing efficiencies--just one piece of the pie.

Some ideas will seem impossible, and maybe they are. Just keep in mind, that during the first industrial revolution, in the span of just 70 years, one person could do what it used to take 200 people to do. In the year 1840, how many people would have predicted such an outcome?