Cradle 2 Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things

William McDonough and Michael Braungart

North Point Press, 2002

by Gerald Wheatley

 

Cradle 2 Cradle, written as a collaboration between an architect and a chemist, is printed on a special plastic polymer which can be dissolved and reused, potentially for an even higher level use than as a printed publication. The book’s material represents the desire to move beyond triple bottom line economics, which the authors feel demotes ecology & justice to afterthoughts of profits, and create an economy that "remakes the way we make things." There is a tone of optimism in this book, urging us to apply our creativity in making “waste equal food”. The waste from one process or product must be, like the petals of the cherry blossom, which feed the abundance of a coherent system. Not only are the theories eloquent, they have applied them in high places; working with the Chinese government to plan the development of a entirely new city and redesigning the Ford Motors River Rouge plant in Dearborne, Michigan, among others. We’ll certainly need creativity to save our collective future and Cradle to Cradle is full of optimism. The damaging oversight of the book is that this optimism comes without a call to reduce consumption. The authors suggest that just as the cherry blossom “overproduces” flower petals, citizens can consume at current, and even increasing, levels as long as products are zero impact. It’s idealist, if not irresponsible, to suggest that a cradle to cradle policy could be implemented , comprehensively and in sufficient time, to avert the problems created by global consumption. It may not be the final word but Cradle to Cradle is an exciting book and the only book in the Arusha library that we’ll let you read in the rain.