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TSES 3002V: TECHNOLOGY-SOCIETY INTERACTIONS Winter 2011

Critical Assessment of a Book

Jordan Palmer

100617721

CRADLE TO CRADLE

Remaking the Way We Make Things

William McDonough & Michael Braungart

North Point Press, New York, 2002.

Handed down to me from a friend.

William McDonough(born in 1951 in Tokyo, Japan) is an architect and the founding principal of William Mc-

Donough + Partners, an internationally recognized design rm practicing ecologically, socially, and economi-

cally intelligent architecture and planning.

Michael Braungart(born in 1958) is a German chemist who advocates that humans can have a positive eco-

logical footprint by redesigning systems which support life. A former Greenpeace activist who once lived in a

tree as protest, he is now a professor of process engineering.

In 1999, Time magazine recognized McDonough as a Hero for the Planet, stating that his utopianism is

grounded in a unied philosophy that - in demonstrable and practical ways - is changing the design of the

world.

In October 2007, Time Magazine recognized Mr. McDonough and Michael Braungart as Heroes of the Envi-

ronment

In 1996, Mr. McDonough received the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development, the nations highest

environmental honor; and in 2003 earned the U.S. EPA Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award.

William McDonoughs book, written with his colleague, the German chemist Michael Braungart, is a mani-

festo calling for the transformation of human industry through ecologically intelligent design 1


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Part 2: Remaking the Way We Make Things:

Before entering a discussion on the structure of the books contents, it is important to address the very struc-

ture of the book itself. The material composition and construction of the book serves as a physical example of

remaking the way we make things, as explained in the books introduction chapter titled, This Book Is Not

a Tree. Printed on synthetic paper made from plastic resins and inorganic llers, it is not only waterproof,

extremely durable, and recyclable by conventional means, but it is also a prototypical example of a technical

nutrient; that is, a product that can be broken down and circulated innitely in industrial cycles to be made into

new things.

The book contains seven chapters;

Introduction: This book Is Not a Tree

Discusses the material composition and of the book and the need for such a product to exist

Introduces the concepts of upcycling and downcycling

Introduces the authors; Bill and Michael

Chapter One:A Question of Design

A Brief History of the Industrial Revolution

From Cradle to Grave discusses the idea of planned obsolescence and dominant linear production models

which result in the negligent and wasteful disposal of valuable, technically rich materials

One-Size-Fits-All, Brute Force, and A Culture of Monoculture; discuss the notion that brute force and

universal design approaches to typical development overwhelm and ignore natural and cultural diversity, re-

sulting in less variety and greater homogeneity

Chapter Two: Why Being Less Bad Is No Good

Examines various existing green movements and eco-effective strategies for change

The Four Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Regulate identies aws in the conventional way of thinking

about environmental regulations

Indicates that although eco-efciency is an admirable concept, it is simply delaying the inevitable degrada-

tion of the planet by making the old, destructive system just a bit less catastrophic


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Chapter Three:Eco-Effectiveness

What is Growth? illustrates the principles of nature, and suggests examples of how those principles might

be applied to revise or reform the framework of our current industrial model

Buildings that, like trees, would produce more energy than they consume and purify their own waste water

Products that, when their useful life is over, do not become useless waste, but can be tossed to the ground

to decompose and become food for plants and animals, and nutrients for soil; or alternatively, that can return

to industrial cycles to supply high-quality raw materials for new products. 2

Chapter Four: Waste Equals Food

From Cradle-to-Grave to Cradle-to-Cradle discusses the concept of nutrient ows and circular life-cycles,

and explains that, To eliminate the concept of waste means to design things - products, packaging, and sys-

tems - from the very beginning on the understanding that waste does not exist. 3

The Biological Metabolism introduces the idea of a biological nutrient

The Technical Metabolism introduces the idea of a technical nutrient

Chapter Five:Respect Diversity

All Sustainability is Local and Using Local Materials discuss the importance of using local resources

A Transition to Diverse and Renewable Energy Flows and Reap the Wind discuss aspects of the energy

grid, and how diversity of sources would allow the grid to be exible enough to adapt to energy demands

Form Follows Evolution emphasizes the necessity of efciency in the design of products and systems

Chapter Six: Putting Eco-Effectiveness into Practice

Five Steps to Eco-Effectiveness identies ve key steps in transitioning to an eco-effective system:

Step 1. Get free of known culprits.

Step 2. Follow informed personal preferences.

Step 3. Creating a passive positive list.

Step 4. Activate the positive list.

Step 5. Reinvent.

Notes and Acknowledgements: Contains references and acknowledges contributions to the book


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Part 4:

This book relates to the course material in that it presents three distinct paradigms in which humans view the

world, and in turn, treat its species and resources. In each case the authors outline how - through cause and ef-

fect - such views will ultimately result in different fates for our planet. The course also presents several perspec-

tives on how we view our relationship to the natural world; our worldviews (DWW, HEP, and NEP) as well as

our perspectives on nature (Nature Benign, Nature Tolerant, and Nature Ephemeral).

Nature Benign can be related to the DWW (Dominant Western Worldview) in which people are fundamental-

ly and signicantly different than all other creatures on Earth, over which they have dominion. 4 Nature Benign

represents a view of nature that is robust and resilient; a belief that nature will not be disturbed easily, and that

natural resources are considered to be abundant. This view is associated with low environmental concern.

Cradle to Cradle details how the old system puts billions of pounds of toxic material into the air, water, and

soil every year. It produces materials so dangerous they will require continuous vigilance by future generations.

It results in gigantic amounts of waste, and puts valuable materials in holes all over the planet where they can

never be retrieved. It creates prosperity by digging up or cutting down natural resources and then burying them

or burning them, and erodes the diversity of species and of cultural practices. This is true cradle to grave think-

ing, perpetuated by the DWW, and it will ultimately convert our planet into one great big graveyard.

Nature Tolerant can be related to the HEP (Human Exemptional Paradigm) in which humans have a cultural

heretage in adition to (and distinct from) their genetic inheritance, and are thus different from all other animal

species. 5 Nature Tolerant views nature as a moderately vulnerable system. It is believed that nature can take

modest disturbances, but only up to a certain point. Natural resources are seen as available but scarce, and as a

result, the Nature Tolerant perspective can be associated with only moderate environmental concern.

The authors assert that - although current environmental movements are a step in the right direction, these

models still function within the existing industrial paradigm - one that is in direct opposition and violation of

the principles of nature. Such a system would simply release fewer pounds of toxic waste into the air, water, and

soil, produce fewer dangerous materials for future generations, create less useless waste, and put smaller am-

mounts of valuable materials in holes where they can never be retrieved. This attitude will only delay the inevi-

table fate of the previous outcome.


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Nature Ephemeral can be related to the NEP (New Ecological Paradigm) in which, despite exceptional char-

acteristics, humans remain one among many species that are interdependently involved in the global ecosys-

tem. 6 The Nature Ephemeral pespective views nature as a fragile and precarious system. Natural resources are

seen as limited and depleting, and therefore, nature ephemeral is associated with high environmental concern.

McDonough and Braungart propose a radical shift in the way we design products and systems; one that follows

the principles of design observed in the natural world. The processes in nature are diverse and resilient because

they have had to adapt and co-evolve over billions of years in a closed system. If we accept that we too exist

within this closed system, along with the things we make, we begin to understand the implications of removing

and contaminating resources from an ecology that is completely interdependent.

The solution is a radical change in thinking, behaviour, and design planning. A change with limitless probabili-

ties and possibilities; a system that no longer poisons itself from the inside out, but rather nourishes and enriches

the world around it. The solution is a system that encourages growth, diversity, and evolution by transforming

industry from a force competing with nature - into a force of nature itself.

REFERENCES:

1 http://www.mcdonough.com/bio.htm

2 Cradle to Cradle, Mcdonough and Braungart, 2002

3 Cradle to Cradle, Mcdonough and Braungart, 2002

4-6 Buschek, TSES 3002V Lecture #2 slides

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