Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
By William McDonough and Michael Braungart
2002, 186 pages, $25.00
North Point Press

“Less bad is no good,” say designer William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart. “Less bad,” the compromise of many environmentalists, means a deteriorating environment, moderated but still harmful pollution, and a delayed but inevitable decline of natural systems and human civilization. Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things offers another course. Good design, the authors say, can build a better kind of economy, one that generates prosperity and supports a healthy environment.

Cradle to Cradle, in contrast to the cradle-to-grave concept, calls for all human activity to mimic natural processes, including rebirth. Industrial materials would flow like nutrients through a food chain. Industry would operate with the exuberance of a cherry tree: budding, bursting into flower, fruiting, shedding leaves and budding again, all the while growing and living in harmony with natural systems.

Taking theory to practice, McDonough and Braungart describe how their work transformed factories from wasteful polluters into green, life-supporting entities. In these real-life examples, toxic effluent becomes water clean enough to drink, a mill making petroleum-derived fabrics switches to natural, biodegradable replacements, and a naturally lit factory with green roofs transforms a blighted industrial brownfield.

Cradle to Cradle itself serves as an example of the authors’ ideas. Instead of paper, its cover and pages are made from a low-impact polymer; you can wash off ink marks and spills under hot water. It can be recycled into another book with minimal energy inputs.

Since the book’s 2002 release, the authors’ influence has grown to include new projects such as McDonough’s commission by the Chinese government to plan Guantang Chuangye, a new sustainable city based on cradle-to-cradle principles.

Cradle to Cradle makes a thought-provoking read for anyone concerned about the environment or the role of business in modern life.

Online Editor's Note: Do you know a local business with sustainable practices? The business could be using organic food, helping people increase energy efficiency, using earth-friendly chemicals — whatever you can think of, let our readers know! Click here to go to our comment page.