Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things

"Practicle ways to have an effect on the invironment for business and individuals." according to David Thompson. Cradle to Cradle and it's following book (The Upcycle) describe how in practical terms people and businesses can affect the health of the planet. The authors are/have worked with companies and governments to put their theories into practice. It works and those companies who have gone that route have saved money and improved the environment around them. Individuals can also follow many of their ideas to improve our lives and the environment. The choices can be as simple as planting trees, recycling and buying products from companies who follow the authors stands to putting solar pa. "A must own for all creatives" according to Charlie C. Michael IV. A wonderful book of ideas regarding design (not design ideas lol).I'm an aspiring architect & really appreciate how the author explains everything. I read this in a library in 2 visits & am buying a copy for my personal library. The ideas shared in this book are invaluable for anyone in every facey of design (from clothing to cars). 100% recommend to anyone.. Hawken & Pals Better, But These Authors Are Part of the A Team Robert David STEELE Vivas Warning. This is a plastic book (recycled something other than paper, waterproof). A pen smears, so plan to use a pencil if you are a normal person who reads serious books with an annotating hand. It is a fast light read, and in some ways I think the authors do not do their pioneering work full justice.It was very helpful to me to have first read Paul Hawken's books (with his co-authors--see my reviews for a fast overview), namely Seven Tomorrows, The Ecology of Commerce, and Natural Capitalism. With that background, and of course having read Limits to Growth and related works in

Why settle for the least harmful alternative when we could have something that is better--say, edible grocery bags! In Cradle to Cradle, the authors present a manifesto calling for a new industrial revolution, one that would render both traditional manufacturing and traditional environmentalism obsolete. Cradle to Cradle is a refreshing change from the intractable environmental conflicts that dominate headlines. --Therese Littleton. It's a handbook for 21st-century innovation and should be required reading for business hotshots and environmental activists. The authors, an architect and a chemist, want to eliminate the concept of waste altogether, while preserving commerce and allowing for human nature. Recycling, for instance, is actually "downcycling," creating hybrids

Why not challenge the notion that human industry must inevitably damage the natural world?In fact, why not take nature itself as our model? A tree produces thousands of blossoms in order to create another tree, yet we do not consider its abundance wasteful but safe, beautiful, and highly effective; hence, "waste equals food" is the first principle the book sets forth. But as this provocative, visionary book argues, this approach perpetuates a one-way, "cradle to grave" manufacturing model that dates to the Industrial Revolution and casts off as much as 90 percent of the materials it uses as waste, much of it toxic. Elaborating their principles from experience (re)designing everything from c