Braungart Michael - Cradle to cradle remaking the way we make things

In the twenty-some years since I came up with the phrase "cradleto cradle", it has become as complicated as a musical score. NowI can explain to the makers of photocopying machines what itmeans in their terms, and to new prawn farmers how to play it.But it is rather like the story I heard recently of a five-year-oldchild who knew only one Felix, and then was introduced to anotherFelix. He says to his father, "Did you know that Felix got anew face this week?"

This book still describes the underlying identity of Cradleto Cradle, but the concept has been rolled out much furtherthan I foresaw when the book was first published in 2002.

In the nineteenth century various writers used the phrase"the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules theworld"and to them this meant that the way we raise our childrenwould do more to change the world than empire-buildersand new industries. The hands that rock Cradle to Cradle todayfit the phrase, I think, as our agenda is also about finding nurturingsolutions very different to the often outrageous initiativesthat harm the environment, sometimes by the same sort of institutions.Cradle to Cradle tries to put human beings in the same"species" picture as other living thingsand to us, a misuse ofmaterial resources is not just suicidal for future human generationsbut catastrophic for the future of life.

However, another guiding principle is that we can discussCradle to Cradle solutions in good humoureven with wit. Thetone of the pages that follow is not generally that of most "environmentaljournalism" of the past six years. Early agriculturalistsaccepted "the law of return", which simply meant that thefarmer should try to repay the earth for what he took from it.But he did not sit at his fireside and chew his nails, asking himselfwhether he got the best of the bargain. It was not a "law"which worried himit was just clearly the right thing to do.Cradle to Cradle is a law of return but with materials ratherthan food-crops. Of course, materials science is harder thanfarming, but we can do it. There is no reason to adopt thestormy tones that other environmentalists often use.

This book describes how Cradle to Cradle got its footholdin the United States, but it doesn't describe how we watchedwhile the greenhouse effect, the loss of species diversity, contaminationof the biosphere, soil and ocean pollution, and otherissues took the media's attention. We felt then, and still feel,that environmental protection is interpreted as the best solutionto these problems, but doesn't this mean that our aim is simplyto be "less bad". If the assumption is that human beings arebad for the planet, surely the best thing is for us not to be hereat all. Zero emissions, zero footprint, reduction, avoidance,minimalizationthe guilt language is very popular.

More control (being "less bad") is not the same as beinggood. It is not protecting your child if you beat him three times insteadof five, and it is not protecting the environment simply touse your car less often. When you do something wrong, don't tryto improve upon it. It is not completely about frequency, as thenext sentence illustrates: I was recently shown a new photocopyingmachine made with far better components, and which rantwice as fast on less energy consumption, but the paper still couldnot be composted. It could not go back into any biological cycle.Yes, it is "less bad" but the optimizations are in the wrong place.

Likewise, compared to tire components in the past, the particlesof latex tires today have become much smaller. In someways this change has been good, but latex is one of the key sensitizingingredients provoking asthma. Now we can make "better"tires but as a result probably more people are unwell. Arewe too quick to embrace some "solutions"? Britain has plannedto build a hundred more waste incineratorswhy? Throughincineration you lose all the nutrients which should go back intotechnical or biological cycles. Copper in that waste, for instance,is worth about 80 million a yearand new copper is so muchmore rare than oil. Phosphate is also rareit is incorporated insludgeand then it too is lost when you put it into incineratorswith municipal waste.