Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (edit title)

Shelfari edited the description of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things Friday, July 31 2009.

• A manifesto for a radically different philosophy and practice of manufacture and environmentalism "Reduce, reuse, recycle" urge environmentalists; in other words, do more with less in order to minimize damage. As William McDonough and Michael Braungart argue in their provocative, visionary book, however, 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. Why not challenge the notion that human industry must inevitably damage the natural world, they ask. 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. Products might be designed so that, after their useful life, they provide nourishment for something new-either as "biological nutrients" that safely re-enter the environment or as "technical nutrients" that circulate within closed-loop industrial cycles, without being "downcycled" into low-grade uses (as most "recyclables" now are). Elaborating their principles from experience (re)designing everything from carpeting to corporate campuses, the authors make an exciting and viable case for change.

Shelfari edited the contributors of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things Tuesday, July 21 2009.

Shelfari edited the contributors of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things Thursday, July 16 2009.

• Added a contributor: William McDonough: (Primary Author)

Kevin denied Timothy Gray’s request to change the contributors of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things Wednesday, July 15 2009.

Timothy Gray edited the characters of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things Thursday, July 9 2009.

• Changed the section title: Important People
• Added a character: Henry Ford
• Added a character: Herman Miller

Timothy Gray edited the first sentence of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things Thursday, July 9 2009.

• In the spring of 1912, one of the largest moving objects ever created by human beings left Southampton, England, and began gliding toward New York.