Foreword
by William McDonough
Imagine
a world in which all the things we make, use and consume
provide nutrition for nature and industry, a world
in which everything is so intelligently designed that
human activity generates a delightful, restorative
ecological footprint. Imagine having the choice, in
every sphere of life – at home, on the job,
travelling from place to place – to use goods
and services that enhance the well-being of your community.
Imagine those goods designed with only safe, healthful
materials that can be either returned to the earth
to replenish the soil or recovered by their manufacturers
to be upcycled into products of higher value, virtually
eliminating the concept of waste. Think of packaging
becoming food for the pea patch, automobiles designed
for disassembly, and cost effective factories powered
by the energy of the sun. Imagine high-tech buildings
so in tune with the biosphere that they inhabit the
landscape like native trees, making oxygen, sequestering
carbon, fixing nitrogen, purifying water, providing
habitat for thousands of species, accruing solar energy,
building soil and changing with the seasons –
while also generating remarkable productivity and
providing beauty, comfort and delight. And then consider
the many ways in which these changes, this rediscovery
of our connection to life, could revitalize our cities,
our economies and our nations, remaking the way we
make things and transforming humanity’s relation
to the Earth.
Such changes are not only in our grasp, they are emerging
with such energy one could say that we have reached
a ‘tipping point’, a moment in history
when we have begun to understand, as Albert Einstein
said, that ‘the world will not evolve past its
current state of crisis by using the same thinking
that created the situation’. But there is still
much to do and much to learn. That is why The
Natural Advantage of Nations is an important contribution
to our common future. A veritable encyclopedia of
inspiring case studies, it shows how whole systems
thinking, effectively applied by cooperative stakeholders,
can achieve real, lasting change in the design of
our world. Indeed, the range of stakeholders involved
in the book parallels a larger, global shift in which
the principles of ecologically intelligent design
are being adopted by businesses, communities, non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), universities and entire nations.
This book captures the remarkable scope of this current
shift. In addition to the exciting revolution in product
and facility design we can see new thinking in many
realms. We see the City
of Chicago adopting sustainable design principles
to guide decision-making for generations of civic
leaders. We see business competitors in major industries,
such as packaging and electronics, working together
to develop business-to-business communities devoted
to creating new, ecologically intelligent standards
that will transform conventional manufacturing. We
see one of the world’s top business schools,
Spain’s Instituto de Empresa, establishing a
new Centre for Eco-Intelligent
Management to foster innovative thinking among
business leaders. In so many respects we have already
‘tipped’ towards a new world.
But the old ways of thinking die hard, even among
those working towards sustainable development. The
conventional wisdom would have us believe, for example,
that the ecological crisis is the inevitable outcome
of economic activity, or, on the other hand, that
we need only reduce the negative impacts of industry
to move safely and prosperously into the future. But
both views are simplifications. Both assume an inherent
conflict between nature and commerce, and so each
fails to see that economic, social and environmental
concerns are synergistic and can propel effective
innovation. As well, such thinking obscures the fact
that the destructive qualities of today’s industrial
system are the result of a fundamental design problem,
a problem that neither regulation nor timid reforms
can ever hope to address. And so the conventional
wisdom fails to get to the heart of the matter –
which is simply this: an industrial system powered
by fossil fuels and nuclear energy that puts billions
of tons of toxic material into the air, water and
soil
every year; requires thousands of complex regulations
to keep people and natural systems from being poisoned
too quickly; and which erodes the diversity of species
and cultural practices is not only unsustainable in
any form, but is a miserably unsatisfying way to do
business – and to live. The alternative is thorough
reinvention, addressing design problems at their source,
rather than tinkering with the flawed engines of conventional
industry. That’s why understanding design’s
central role in transforming manufacturing and commerce
is so crucial. And that’s why cradle-to-cradle
design offers hope for an entirely different world.
Cradle-to-cradle
design begins with the proposition that the effective,
regenerative cycles of nature – the cyclical
flows of energy, water and nutrients that support
life – provide an unmatched model for wholly
positive human designs. In the natural world, one
organism’s ‘waste’ cycles through
an ecosystem to provide nourishment for other living
things; its productivity is beneficial and regenerative
– waste equals food. Just so, cradle-to-cradle
products are designed to circulate in closed-loop
cycles that virtually eliminate waste and provide
‘nutrients’ for nature and industry. The
cradle-to-cradle framework developed by my colleague
Michael Braungart and myself recognizes two metabolisms
within which materials flow as healthy nutrients.
First, nature’s nutrient cycles constitute the
biological metabolism. Materials designed to flow
optimally in the biological metabolism are biological
nutrients. Products conceived as these nutrients,
such as biodegradeable fabrics, are designed to be
used and safely returned to the environment to nourish
living systems. Second, the technical metabolism,
designed to mirror earth’s cradle-to-cradle
cycles, is a closed-loop system in which valuable,
hightech synthetics and mineral resources –
technical nutrients – circulate in perpetual
cycles of production, recovery and remanufacture.
Ideally, all the human artefacts that make up the
technical metabolism, from buildings to manufacturing
systems, are powered by renewable energy. Working
within this framework we can, by design, enhance humanity’s
positive impact on the world. Rather than limiting
growth or reducing emissions or using brute force
to overcome the rules of the natural world, we can
create economies worldwide that purify air, land and
water; that rely on current solar income and generate
no waste; that support energy-effectiveness, healthy
productivity and social well-being. In short, sound,
regenerative economies that enhance all life.
A brief look at some of the innovative work inspired
by cradle-to-cradle
thinking strongly suggests that we can achieve a healthy,
sustaining economy in this century. Products designed
as biological and technical nutrients, for example,
have already successfully entered the marketplace.
The upholstery fabric Climatex
Lifecycle is a blend of pesticide-residue-free
wool and organically grown ramie, dyed and processed
entirely with non-toxic chemicals. All of its product
and process inputs were defined and selected for their
human and ecological safety within the biological
metabolism. The result: after the end of its useful
commercial life the fabric can be used as garden mulch
for growing fruits and vegetables, returning the textile’s
biological nutrients to the soil. Honeywell, meanwhile,
is marketing a textile for the technical metabolism,
a high-quality carpet yarn called Zeftron Savant,
which is made of perpetually recyclable nylon 6 fibre.
Zeftron Savant is designed to be reclaimed and repolymerized
– taken back to its constituent resins –
to become new material for new carpets. In fact, Honeywell
can retrieve old, conventional nylon 6 and transform
it into Zeftron Savant, upcycling rather than downcycling
an industrial material. The nylon is rematerialized,
not dematerialized – a true cradle-to-cradle
product. Shaw Industries, the world’s largest
commercial carpet maker, is going a step further,
developing a safe, technical nutrient carpet tile
and a system for its recovery and remanufacture –
a technical metabolism. Responding to widespread scientific
and consumer concern about PVC in carpet backing,
Shaw developed a safe, polyolefin-based backing system
with all the performance benefits of PVC, which it
guarantees it will take back along with its high quality
nylon 6 carpet facing. All the materials that go into
the carpet will continually circulate in technical
nutrient cycles. Raw material to raw material. Waste
equals food.
This cradle-to-cradle
cycle is altogether different from typical eco-efficient
recycling, which tends to mix carpets’ face
fibre and PVC backing, yielding a hybrid material
of lesser value. In effect, the materials are not
recycled at all but downcycled – and they are
still on a one way, cradle-to-grave trip to the landfill
or incinerator. There, the PVC content of the material
makes recycled carpet hazardous waste. Shaw’s
ground-breaking work, however, shows how the material
flows of an entire industry can be transformed by
adopting the cradle-to-cradle paradigm. Indeed, Shaw
has changed its corporate mission to reflect its new
direction. As Shaw’s Steve Bradfield says, ‘Sustainability
is our goal; cradle-to-cradle is our path’.
After a decade in which cradleto- cradle thinking
emerged, business by business as companies such as
Shaw, Nike, Ford and Herman Miller integrated eco-effective
thinking into everyday operations, we are now seeing
a new wave of innovation that is carrying cradle-to-cradle
principles beyond company boundaries into cooperative
inter-business communities and the wider world.
Consider, for example, how competitors in the packaging
industry are using cradleto- cradle design as a catalyst
for industry-wide change. Currently, the life cycle
of most packaging is a one-way, cradle-to-grave stream
of materials. In the US alone, 45 million tons of
containers and packaging are discarded annually, creating
a host of unintended environmental problems. But what
if packaging flowed in cradle-to-cradle cycles, generating
only positive effects? What if it provided nutrition
for soil and created no waste? Those were the questions
that came to the fore in March 2003 when the EPA sponsored
Cradle-to-Cradle
Design Challenge invited the industry to re-design
e-commerce packaging. The purpose of the challenge
was to stimulate creativity and offer the industry
positive alternatives to regulation.
‘Regulations will always be a part of the picture’,
said EPA Office of Solid Waste Project Director Claire
Lindsay. ‘But we are also trying to find ways
to encourage “beyond compliance”, and
cradle-to-cradle design is totally beyond compliance.
That resonates with industry. Industry wants maximum
freedom to innovate, and going beyond compliance by
means of this new paradigm generates innovative thinking.’
Indeed it does. Not only did the design challenge
encourage the packaging industry to consider the ecological
and human health characteristics of materials, it
laid the foundation for an industry working group
devoted to implementing cradle-to-cradle principles.
After a pair of meetings arranged by GreenBlue, the
non-profit established to shepherd cradle-to-cradle
design into the public domain, industry giants such
as Cargill Dow, Dow Chemical, Estee Lauder/Aveda,
Mead/Westvaco, Nike, Starbucks, Tropicana/Pepsi and
Unilever organized to pursue ‘a positive, robust
environmental vision for packaging’ which includes
developing cyclical material flows and ‘increasing
demand for environmentally intelligent, cradle-to-cradle
materials’. The resulting Sustainable Packaging
Coalition, officially launched in March 2004, represents
a promising, replicable model in which cooperation,
quality and innovation drive mutually beneficial,
industry-wide change. EPA Office of Solid Waste has
also partnered with GreenBlue
on the eDesign
Idea Competition to develop cradle-to-cradle standards
for the electronics industry. Like packaging waste
flows, the electronics solid waste stream is formidable
and far-flung. But as electronics designers work with
and internalize cradle-to-cradle principles, they
will be able to apply them to the design of products,
production processes, distribution logistics and delivery
systems. Cradle-to-cradle principles also provide
a platform for shared leadership and collaboration
among a range of stakeholders – suppliers, manufacturers,
dismantlers, government agencies, academia and NGOs
– involved in realizing integrated systems of
design, manufacturing and material recovery.
The design competitions also marked the beginning
of a promising new relationship between government
and industry. Commenting on the new industry groups
sparked by the competitions, EPA Policy Analyst
Angie Leith noted: ‘Looking into the future,
we see that we have to look upstream. We have to
look at material flow management and not waste management.
We have to think of cradle-to-cradle rather than
cradle-to-grave. That’s the direction we want
to go.’ Cities, too, want to go in that direction.
In Chicago, for example, cradle-to-cradle principles
are serving as a reference point for long-term urban
planning as the city strives to become the greenest
in America. And the work is well underway. Along
with a host of traditional beautification efforts,
such as the planting of some 300,000 trees, Mayor
Richard Daley’s administration is also working
to make the city a model of how industry and ecology,
city and nature, can flourish side-by-side. To that
end, the City has installed a green roof on City
Hall and undertaken the largest brownfield redevelopment
effort in the US. It has begun to restore the Lake
Michigan shoreline and is committed to buying 20
per cent of its electricity from renewable sources
by 2006. Meanwhile, renewable energy companies,
such as the solar panel manufacturer Spire, have
moved their headquarters to the Chicago
Center for Green Technology, a new ecologically
intelligent facility built on a restored industrial
site. Spire is already supplying Chicago with locally
manufactured solar panels, which the City has installed
on the roofs of the Field Museum, the Mexican Fine
Arts Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago’s
successful application of an ecologically intelligent,
technologically advanced urban planning strategy
suggests a bright future for cradle-to-cradle cities.
As cradle-to-cradle material and energy flows become
an integral part of industry, re-industrialization
will become a clean, safe, option for healthy urban
growth. The 21st century city will not only fit
elegantly into the natural landscape, it will become
a revitalizing force in its region.
In this new regional metropolis, biological and technical
nutrition flow back and forth between city and countryside,
enriching both. The city receives food, water and
energy from a broad nexus of solar-powered, biologically-based,
photosynthetic systems. The energy of the sun is harvested
on rooftops; rural windmills power city buildings;
water falls on a network of rooftop gardens and interconnected
greenways, flowing safely into the soil, into the
watershed, into the air. In the countryside, farmers
grow food using implements manufactured in the city
– technical nutrients – and the city receives
this nourishment, digests it and excretes it back
to its source, returning biological nutrients to the
rural soil. The windmills on the farm, a new cash
crop, are forged in the city, produce power for the
region in the countryside, and then are returned to
the city every 20 years to be refurbished and returned
to the farm. Everything moves in regenerative cycles,
from city to country, country to city, all the polymers,
metals and synthetic fibres flowing safely in the
technical metabolism, all the photosynthetic nutrients
– food, wood, natural fibres – flowing
in the biological metabolism. These flows of nutrients
are the twin metabolisms of the living city that allow
human settlements and the natural world to thrive
together. Building the infrastructure to support them
is a key challenge for the 21st century city.
From the borders of the regional metropolis we can
begin to imagine the cradle-tocradle national economy.
A national economic strategy developed around biological
and technical nutrient flows inherently supports national
industry. In the US, for example, making quality,
innovation and environmental health the hallmarks
of industry would give a whole range of businesses
a competitive edge and create new markets for American
products. Perhaps more importantly, it would lay the
foundation for the re-vitalization of on-shore manufacturing
as companies move their operations close to home to
optimize the value of their technical nutrient cycles,
which are most beneficial when materials are recovered
and re-used with a minimum of transportation. As we
have seen in Chicago, this kind of deeply considered,
ecologically intelligent re-industrialization would
make manufacturing a safe, beneficial addition to
community life. This does not mean an end to trade
between regions or nations. On the contrary, it simply
suggests that, as in politics, all sustainability
is local and that a nation of cradle-to-cradle economies
would be an economically vibrant nation as well as
a good trading partner. Consider the relationship
between China and the US. Currently, the two nations
can be seen as suffering from the commercial exchange
of toxic products that ultimately damage the economic,
social and environmental health of both nations. While
China becomes the world’s low-cost supplier
of environmentally questionable products, the US brings
those products to market with one of the world’s
most ‘efficient’ distribution systems,
moving goods in a rapid, one-way trip from retailer
to consumer to landfill. In many cases, the US sends
the most contaminated products back to China, where
lead and copper are unsafely recycled from computers
and televisions. This is trade as mutually assured
destruction.
Yet it offers an unparalleled arena for innovation.
China has recognized that the cradle-to-cradle strategy
can be applied on a large scale and in 2002 Madame
Deng Nan, China’s Vice Minister of Science and
Technology, put forward that it will begin to develop
industries and products based on cradle-to-cradle
principles. Working with the China–US Center
for Sustainable Development, China is already applying
cradle-to-cradle thinking to urban and rural planning
and developing a variety of solar and wind powered
enterprises. These are the kinds of projects that
could transform the relationship between China and
the US, and indeed the foundations of world trade.
The two powers represent critical dimensions of the
human enterprise that clearly have a profound influence
on the future of the planet. The combined impact of
their industrial practices alone calls forth both
great responsibilities and great opportunities. As
the cradle-tocradle infrastructure grows in China,
as it is growing in the US, the two nations could
well become cradle-to-cradle industrial partners,
developing products and enterprises that support the
life and health of both. This cooperative relationship,
at its best, will be a competitive one. Rather than
competing to destroy each other, however, China and
the US could compete in the classic sense of the word,
which in Latin means ‘to strive together’
like great athletes in training – like the Williams
sisters working out together to become more polished
players. Imagine, then, the two nations – or
a coalition of nations – working vigorously
towards a common goal: not an end game in which one
player wins, but a field of endeavour in which China
and the US get fit together as each nation strives
to create enterprises that generate commercial productivity,
ecological intelligence and cultural wealth.
That will only be a beginning. The birth of truly
regenerative industry and commerce calls for global
action. It requires energy, genius, creativity and
commitment from all sectors of society from all nations.
It asks that communities, governments, NGOs, educators
and business leaders from Beijing to Buenos Aries
apply cradle-to-cradle design and development to the
pursuit of a prosperous, equitable future for all.
We must, all of us, reach for nothing less.
The Natural Advantage of Nations is one of the first
books to bring together examples of leadership in
all these sectors of society. Its breathtaking scope,
supported by an extensive online resource, outlines
inspiring case studies from all over the world. It
shows that what many people saw as impossible just
15 years ago is now already happening. Within these
pages you will see that there is reason for robust
hope, and as you read, we hope you will be inspired
to contribute to this magnificent re-evolution of
human enterprise, a moment in our history when the
things we make and build and grow can become a truly
regenerative force.
Charlottesville,
Virginia
12 August 2004
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