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1-Sentence-Summary: Cradle To Cradle Uncovers The Hidden Problems With Manufacturing
1-Sentence-Summary: Cradle To Cradle Uncovers The Hidden Problems With Manufacturing
fourminutebooks.com
The last time your shoes got a hole in them, did you just throw them away? What about
when you dropped your phone and cracked the screen? Chances are, you just bought a
newer one instead. And it’s not really your fault. Often it’s much easier and sometimes
cheaper to just replace something rather than go to fix it.
Why? Because the things we buy are designed to get broken and replaced. Pretty much
everything that is manufactured is destined to one day end up in the trash. Not just because
they’re poorly made, but many products we buy are just too hard to put safely back into the
environment.
In Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things , we learn that there are ways we can
adjust the manufacturing industry to be both sustainable and more efficient. Authors
William McDonough and Micheal Braungart use their expertise in chemistry and
environmental science to show just how achievable it is.
Here are the 3 most interesting ideas about manufacturing from this book:
1. The way manufacturing is structured today is fundamentally bad for the environment.
2. The current way we regulate the environment isn’t enough for the long haul.
3. Eco-effectiveness is better than eco-efficiency in protecting the environment.
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Let’s get right to it and see what we can do to help our planet!
We may be more aware of our environmental impact today, but it still remains a linear
system. Meaning, the things we purchase go from producer to us and to the trash. This way
of production is known as the cradle-to-grave model. We get resources to make
products, sell these, and they end up in a “grave,” most likely the dump.
We see this in many other examples like mining or clearing land for one crop. This way of
thinking reflects our deep ideology that the earth just exists for our taking. Sure, we’ve made
progress, but the authors argue that we haven’t given the problem the effort it truly needs.
Finally, the problem with recycling is that we lose the quality of the material over time, so it’s
really like downcycling. This is because we’re not able to separate what we mixed in making
the first product. Hence, the materials in products can’t be brought back to what they first
were.
Most of our eco-efficient ways are only fixing problems temporarily. Though energy-
efficient buildings have helped reduce the need for oil for heating and cooling by
better insulation, poorly designed building materials actually add to indoor air
pollution. This means a need for more fresh air in buildings than before.
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Surely the regulations that our government puts in place make sure corporations are doing
their part, right? Unfortunately, the way they regulate isn’t very helpful. Instead of
encouraging businesses to try to create problem-solving, they resort to punishment if
necessary, essentially making environmental protection just another hassle.
Eco-effectiveness wants to help industries do the “right thing” and still be bigger and better.
We can do this by considering ways to bring manufactured materials back to nature
safely, such as making products biodegradable.
Usually, we take biological materials and turn them into technical materials, which can’t be
returned to nature in a usable way. But it’s possible to design products as biological
nutrients. One place we can do this is in soaps and other cleaners. If we did this, after they
have washed away, they could safely end up in a wetland and support the ecosystem.
We could also designate materials as technical materials, that can go back into the technical
cycle. One idea of how to do this is instead of selling a TV, businesses could rent it out for a
time. When the customer was done, they could return it, and the same material can be
recycled into a newer TV.
Business owners must adopt a fractal triangle of equity, economy, and ecology. Equity
considers fairness, such as whether or not employees are treated fairly. Economy considers
whether or not you will turn a profit. Ecology means considering whether or not you are
creating too much waste or negatively impacting the environment. Your processes and
products need to find a balance between all three aspects of this triangle.
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