Green to Gold 1 Chapter 8 – Redesigning Your World

Green to Gold 2 The Importance of Design So much of a product’s environmental impact is firmly established in the design phase – Once you spec out a product, 90% of the footprint is set – After-the-fact corrective actions are just “nibbles at the margin”

Green to Gold 3

4 The Next Industrial Revolution William McDonough & Michael Braungart William McDonough Our modern infrastructure resembles a steamship (Titanic) that is about to have an encounter with the natural world – Powered by fossil fuels & chemicals – Pouring waste into the air & water – Attempting to run by its own rules, contrary to that of nature – Seems invincible but it fundamental design flaws presage disaster Yet many still believe that with a few minor alterations, this infrastructure can take us safely and prosperously into the future

Green to Gold 5 The Next Industrial Revolution Industrial Revolution assumptions: – Resources are inexhaustible, boundless – Nature is something to be tamed and civilized By the 1990’s, business leaders saw that what was thought to be boundless had limits (and we were starting to hit them)

Green to Gold 6 The Next Industrial Revolution 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro – Eco-efficiency is the answer to environmental decline – Machines of industry would be refitted with cleaner, faster, quieter engines – Prosperity would remain unobstructed – Economic & organizational structures would remain intact – Human industry transformed from a system that “takes, makes, and wastes into one that integrates economic, environmental, and ethical concerns”

Green to Gold 7 The Next Industrial Revolution Eco-efficiency is transforming business Green to Gold – Doing more with less – Cutting costs – Differentiation – Long-term focus – Culture changing – (also diminishes guilt and fear)

Green to Gold 8 The Next Industrial Revolution Eco-efficiency is admirable & well-intended but it is NOT a long-term strategy – Doesn’t reach deep enough – Works within the same system that caused the problems in the 1st place – Presents an illusion of change – Will let industry finish off the environment quietly, persistently, and completely – Being less bad isn’t the same as being good

Green to Gold 9 The Next Revolution If someone were to present the Industrial Revolution as a retroactive design assignment, it might sound like this: Design a system of production that – Puts billions of pounds of toxic material into the air, water, and soil every year – Measures prosperity by activity, not legacy – Requires thousands of complex regulations to keep people and natural systems from being poisoned too quickly – Produces materials so dangerous that they will require constant vigilance from future generations – Results in gigantic amounts of waste – Puts valuable materials in holes all over the planet, where they can never be retrieved – Erodes the diversity of biological species and cultural practices

Green to Gold 10 The Next Industrial Revolution Eco-efficiency instead: – Releases fewer pounds of toxic material into the air, water, and soil every year – Measures prosperity by less activity – Meets or exceeds the stipulations of thousands of complex regulations that aim to keep people and natural systems from being poisoned too quickly – Produces fewer dangerous materials that will require constant vigilance from future generations – Results in smaller amounts of waste – Puts fewer valuable materials in holes all over the planet, where they can never be retrieved – Standardizes and homogenizes biological species and cultural practices

Green to Gold 11 The Next Industrial Revolution Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – Slows down the process of contamination – Slows down depletion – But does NOT stop these processes Most recycling is nothing more than downcycling – Very few items were ever designed to be recycled – Melted down, combined with other plastics to produce a lower- grade hybrid -value lost – Creative use of hybrids can be misguided Endocrine disruptors Clothing – 90% ultimately ends up in landfills or incinerated Particulates & microscopic particles - 100,000 premature deaths per year

Green to Gold 12 The Next Industrial Revolution Basic ecological operating instructions 1. There is NO such thing as waste (waste=food) 2. Bio-diversity 3. Current solar energy

Green to Gold 13 The Next Industrial Revolution 1. Waste = food – All the products and materials manufactured by industry must after each useful life provide nourishment for something new Biological nutrients return to the organic cycle Technical nutrients (things made by man) designed to continually recycle within closed-loop cycles - technical metabolism Great care must be taken to avoid cross-contamination – Customers buy the service not the item

Green to Gold 14 The Next Industrial Revolution 2. Respect diversity – Designs will respect the regional, cultural, and material uniqueness of a place. – Wastes and emissions will regenerate rather than deplete – Design will be flexible, to allow for changes in the needs of people and communities

Green to Gold 15 The Next Industrial Revolution 3. Use Solar Energy – Currently living unsustainably Living on finite, stored, ancient solar energy Fossil fuels are a death-based energy source – The only input to our closed system is solar energy

Green to Gold 16 The Next Industrial Revolution Design an industrial system for the next century that – Introduces no hazardous materials into the air, water, or soil – Measures prosperity by how much natural capital we can accrue in productive ways – Measures productivity by how many people are gainfully and meaningfully employed – Measures progress by how many buildings have no smokestacks or dangerous effluents – Does not require regulations whose purpose is to stop us from killing ourselves too quickly – Produces nothing that will require future generations to maintain vigilance – Celebrates the abundance of biological and cultural diversity and solar income

Green to Gold 17 Cradle to Cradle Bill McDonough presentation

Green to Gold 18 Further Reading The Ecology of Commerce – Paul Hawken Natural Capitalism – Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, Hunter Lovins Cradle to Cradle – William McDonough & Michael Braungart Midcourse Correction – Ray Anderson Hot, Flat, and Crowded – Thomas Friedman Earth in Mind – David Orr