BOOKS
BETTER LIVING BY DESIGN CRADLE TO CRADLE: REMAKING THE WAY WE MAKE THINGS, by WMiamMc-
Donough andMichaelBraungart, North Point Press, 2002,195pagps, $25 (ISBN 0-86547-587-3) REVIEWED BY MARY KIRCHHOFF
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MAGINE A WORLD WHERE WASTE, AS WE
currently define it, is nonexistent. In this world, "waste" from one organism, product, or process becomes "food" for another. Materials are designed to be perpetually recycled, rather than eventually discarded. All consumer goods are composed of materials that are completely innocuous and manufactured in an environmentally benign process. In this world, eco-effectiveness is practiced by designing products that incorporate substances that are healthy and safe while avoiding those that are harmful. Informed personal preferences guide both the customer and the designers who develop the products and processes needed to "support and perpetuate the rights of all living things to share in a world of abundance." A car becomes a 'nutrivehicle' that releases positive emissions and generates nutritious effects on the environment. Such is the vision of William McDonough and Michael Braungart in "Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things." The authors are business partners, combining the expertise of an architect (McDonough) and a chemist (Braungart) to design materials and spaces that are ecoeffective. In advocating the creation of materials to replace those currently in use, they point to the very book in which their words are printed, observing, "This book is not a tree." Instead of paper, the book is made from plastic resins and inorganic fillers; it is waterproof, durable, and may be recycled. The authors contend that the tree, "among the finest of nature's creations... is not a fitting resource to use in producing so humble and transient a substance as paper." They don't address, however, the consequences of using petroleum to produce the plastic resins used in the book. The authors trace flaws in the design of 34
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materials currently in use back to the Industrial Revolution. Unintended consequences of the Industrial Revolution— such as the generation of large quantities ofwaste, the release of toxic substances into the environment, and the erosion of species diversity—serve as a model for problems created through poor design. In contrast, McDonough and Braungart advocate the design of "products and systems that celebrate an abundance of human creativity, culture, and productivity." Products and systems should be developed "that are so intelligent and safe, our species leaves an ecological footprint to delight in, not lament." The authors question the alleged benefits of a number of enviromental movements currently practiced. Eco-efficiency, for example, a movement that emphasizes doing more with less, in their eyes simply slows down the manufacturing system re-
sponsible for creating the original problem. The eventual outcome is still to allow industry to "finish off everything, quietly, persistently, and completely "They see this type of "less bad" approach as a "failure of the imagination," which they would correct by adopting a model they call eco-effectiveness.
To McDonough and Braungart, eco-effectiveness means "working on the right things—on the right products and services and systems —instead of making the wrong things less bad." As an example, they cite their design of a factory for office furniture maker Herman Miller that incorporates natural lighting, an indoor "street," and wetlands that clean storm and wastewater. The company has increased its employee retention and its productivity in the new facility To the three Rs of eco-efficiency—reduce, reuse, and recycle —the authors add a fourth, regulation. They find these Rs inadequate, however, as guiding principles for designing better materials and T^', processes. Reduction in the quantities of materials used or the amount of toxic substances released merely slows down depletion and destruction, they argue. Reusing wastes may only mean shifting them to another location as, for example, when sewage sludge that may contain harmful substances is used as fertilizer. They question the long-term value of recycling because often recycling is actually downcycling, whereby the quality of the material is reduced with reuse. And regulation, they suggest, is a signal of design failure and is, in fact, "a license to harm: a permit issued by the government to an industry so that it may dispense sickness,
destruction, and death at an 'acceptable' rate."They do recognize, however, that regulations can reduce harmful effects caused by unintelligent and destructive designs. The authors propose a cradle-to-cradle approach to thinking about materials as an alternative to the current cradle-to-grave approach. Key to this change in thinking is a redefinition ofwaste: "To eliminate the concept ofwaste means to design things— products, packaging, and systems—from the very beginning on the understanding that waste does not exist." They envision an interconnected system of industrial HTTP://PUBS.ACS.ORG/CEN
processes that they call the technosphere, by analogy to the interconnected natural system, the biosphere. The biosphere and the technosphere are two separate "metabolisms" for which materials must be designed. Biological nutrients are materials that can be consumed by microorganisms and other animals and returned to the biological cycle. Technical nutrients would be reclaimed from consumer products and used to produce new goods. A television, for example, could be returned to the manufacturer and its components used to make new televisions when the consumer is ready to upgrade to a newer product. Environmental benefit is compatible with profltablity, McDonough and Braungart maintain, and they offer several examples to support this view. A building at Oberlin College that maximizes the use of solar energy generates more energy than it uses. Other buildings have had traditional roofing materials replaced with a "living" roof consisting of soil and plants, reminiscent of the sod houses built by pioneers. Such roofs maintain a more stable temperature, absorb storm water, produce oxygen, and sequester carbon. A new plant at Ford Motor Co.'s River Rouge site in Michigan will purify storm water in a marsh stocked with plants, microbes, and fungi. In addition to cleaning the water, the marsh will provide a habitat for other organisms, while saving Ford money in storm water management. The revamped facility, scheduled to reopen next year, is designed to demonstrate that eco-effectiveness and profit can be achieved simultaneously Although this book has much to offer as a statement of vision, it should not be confused with a guide for how to accomplish this vision. The vision is ambitious: designing buildings that produce more energy than they consume, building factories whose effluents are drinking water, creating products that become food for plants and animals at the end of their useful lives, developing transportation systems that improve the quality of life. Specifics on methods for achieving this vision, however, are scarce. For example, the authors propose three categories for classifying substances: an X list, containing the most problematic substances, such as carcinogens and teratogens; a gray list, which includes problematic substances whose phaseout is less urgent; and a P list, featuring substances actively defined as healthy and safe for use. But they don't identify which substances appear on these lists, which HTTP://PUBS.ACS.ORG/CEN
limits the utility of the classification. Virtually all of the examples of creative design in the book are drawn from the authors' own commercial ventures. While it's understandable that this is the work the authors know best, this narrow focus passes up an opportunity to provide a broader presentation of what is currently taking place in the development of sustainable products, processes, and systems. Some of the messages conveyed in "Cradle to Cradle" may actually deter environmental improvement. It has been said that the perfect is the enemy of the good. By titling a chapter "Why being less bad* is no good," the authors seem to imply that any solutions short of perfection are unacceptable. Yet the cumulative effect on the environment of incremental changes in processing and design can be significant, and the adoption of cleaner technologies
should be encouraged. While being "100% good" is the ideal, achieving perfection should not inhibit new technologies that offer environmental and human health benefits. "Cradle to Cradle" challenges society to redesign the materials we use and to revolutionize the manner in which we make them. McDonough and Braungart believe that by respecting diversity, mimicking nature, and implementing eco-effective practices, we can design a "world of prosperity and health in the future." Such considerations are key to the development of a sustainable society, and this book articulates a vision for redesigning the materials, systems, and services society depends upon every day.
Imagine a world where "waste" from one process becomes "food" for another, and materials are designed to be perpetually recycled.
LETTERS continued from page 5 image ofwhat constitutes a druglike molecule that holds it back from looking in new, more productive places? Nature has provided us with far more elements than just carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. PtCl2(NH3)2, a huge success in the antitumor field, contains no carbon at all, but it was discovered outside the pharmaceutical industry and seems to have had little impact on broadening the concept of the druglike molecule. We need not go as far as Pt—usefully different molecules could come from judicious incorporation of Si, Ge, B, P, Se, Te, Fe, Co, or Cu into conventionally active molecules. The rise of combinatorial/rapid-throughput methods was supposed to open the door to new drug molecules, but perhaps the libraries that are commonly constructed stay too close to home. ROBERT H. CRABTREE
New Haven, Conn.
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HAD A CHUCKLE OVER THE CONTENTION
Mary Kirchhoff is assistant director of the American Chemical Society's Green Chemistry Institute. invariably work in genres that appeal to the masses. As for the rest? Well, a study by the Author's Guild showed that the median income for an American writer is about $5,000 per year. The average symphony musician makes maybe twice that. Compared to these amounts, I think the income of the average inventor working for a company is pretty good! RONALD D. ICENOGLE
Olympia, Wash.
Red, green LEPs available
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WOULD LIKE TO CLARIFY ONE POINT
from an item in Business Roundup (C&ENJuly 29, page 13).Thefirstcommercial grades of red and green Dow lightemitting polymers (LEPs) are now available, and Dow Advanced Electric Materials (AEM) expects to commercialize a blue material by the end of 2002. The article states, "Dow says it will be making red-, green-, and blue-emitting polymers by the end of this year." This may have obscured the fact that red and green LEPsfromDow AEM are currently available.
by Richard that writers and musicians are making a lot more money than inventors. Certainly, there are some writers and musicians making enormous DATASHA HARRIS amounts of money (as are some inven- Dow AEM tors), but they are very few in number and Midland, Mich. C&EN
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