Architect McDonough and chemist Braungart use this little book with its curved corners and strangely smooth paper to embody and represent one of two kinds of engineering which they advocate: development of materials that can be perpetually reused in technology (the authors claim the material can be continually remade into other books and recycled).

"Reduce, reuse, recycle" goes the battle cry of the ecology movement; in other words, do more with less in order to be "eco-efficient". As William McDonough and Michael Braungart argue in this provocative, visionary book, this approach tends to perpetuate rather than challenge the industrial paradigm that got us into such serious environmental trouble in the first place. We continue to rely on linear, one-way, "cradle to grave" systems of production that, however unintentionally, are designed to cast off as much as 90 percent of the materials they use as waste, much of it toxic; "eco-efficiency" attempts only to make these old, destructive systems less so, a fatally limited goal.

McDonough and Braungart call into question the notion that human industry must inevitably damage the natural world. They propose a new paradigm for the making of things, taking as their model nature itself, which, as they point out, is highly industrious, productive, and creative -- even "inefficient" -- but also extraordinarily effective. Drawing on the designs they have devised for everything from carpeting to corporate campuses, they ground their principles in practice and make an exciting, viable case for change.

Publisher:

North Point Press

ISBN:

9780865475878

Publication date:

April 2002

Length:

200mm

Width:

131mm

Thickness:

17mm

Weight:

553g

Pages:

208

Readership:

General

Environmentalists too rarely apply the ecological wisdom of life to our problems. Asking how a cherry tree would design an energy efficient building is only one of the creative 'practices' that McDonough and Braungart spread, like a field of wild flowers, before their readers. This book will give you renewed hope that, indeed, 'it is darkest before the dawn'. --Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club
Achieving the great economic transition to more equitable, ecologically sustainable societies requires nothing less than a design revolution--beyond today's fossilized industrialism. This enlightened and enlightening book shows us how--and indeed, that 'God is in the details.' A must for every library and every concerned citizen. --Hazel Henderson, author of Building a Win-Win World and Beyond Globalization: Shaping a Sustainable Global Economy
[McDonough and Braungart's] ideas are bold, imaginative, and deserving of serious attention.
--Ben Ehrenreich, Mother Jones magazine
[A] clear, accessible manifesto... the authors' original concepts are an inspiring reminder that humans are capable to much more elegant environmental solutions than the ones we've settled for in the last half-century.
-- Publishers Weekly
A readable provocative treatise that 'gets outside the box' in a huge way. Timely and inspiring.
-- Kirkus Reviews
Our planet is alive and the wondrous web of biodiversity provides us with all we need -- clean air, water, soil, and energy, as well as food, medicine, resources. Whatever we do, that's what should be the highest priority for protection and we have to adapt everything else to that end. With this book, McDonough andBraungart open our eyes to the way to genuine sustainability by the study of nature and mimicking her ways. This is a groundbreaking book that should be the Bible for the Second Industrial Revolution.
--Dr. David Suzuki, Professor Emeritus, University of British Columbia