Showing results by author "William McDonough" in All Categories

"Reduce, reuse, recycle," urge environmentalists. In other words, do more with less in order to minimize damage. 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. They challenge the notion that human industry must inevitably damage the natural world.

The Upcycle is the eagerly awaited follow-up to Cradle to Cradle, the most consequential ecological manifesto of our time. Now, drawing on the lessons gained from 10 years of putting the cradle-to-cradle concept into practice with businesses, governments, and ordinary people, William McDonough and Michael Braungart envision the next step in the solution to our ecological crisis: We don't just reuse resources with greater effectiveness, we actually improve them as we use them.

He explains the idea of “Cradle to Cradle”, and how humans can become tools of the natural world once more. He explores the difference between a consumer and a customer, explains what is meant by accruing a “materials bank”, and proposes how we can turn sewage treatment plants into nutrient management plants. He is an anticipatory design architect. But more than that he is a philosopher for the 21st century, and is asking some of the most critical questions we should be thinking about in these challenging times.