Cradle to Cradle

The reading of William McDonough and Michael Braungart’s “Cradle to Cradle” was interesting in the fact that it took a proactive position in discussing the problems with our environment. As a reader, I found this to be more of an interest to me rather than discussing whether or not global warming exists and how bad it has become.

On page 76 of “Cradle to Cradle,” it states “Our concept of eco-effectiveness means working on the right things—instead of making the wrong things less bad. Once you are doing the right things, then doing them right with the help of efficiency among other tools makes perfect sense.” They call for the need to think of revolutionary ideas for industries. They call for businesses, factories, and buildings to become integrated with the environment. This is exemplified when the talk of the Cherry Tree. As they say, “the cherry tree enriches the ecosystem, sequestering carbon, producing oxygen, cleaning air and water, and creating stabilizing soil. The tree is not an isolated entity cut off from the systems around it: it is inextricably and productively engaged with them.” This is iterated by them talking of buildings that could possess such characteristics as being surrounded by lines of trees, having native grasses growing on their roofs for run-off protection and protecting it from thermal shock and ultraviolet degradation, a multitude of windows that allows one to see outside from multiple views, opening widows that allow for the movement of fresh air, a nighttime cooling strategy that cuts the need for air-conditioning through the day, and storm water and waste water channels that are connected to sections of wetlands that will naturally clean them and additionally lightening the load of rivers which cuts down on the effects of flooding. These are all good solutions in integrating our society into the environment for obvious reasons…reasons that are not necessary for the authors to go into great detail about.

McDonough and Braungart gain credibility by talking about “biophilia” (people who love the outdoors) and how workers retention rates have increased and that people are starting to leave higher paying jobs for a better working environment. Their intelligence is also credited by discussing the conflicting views of former president Bill Clinton’s staff and environmental organization from 1993 to 1999. Near the end of the excerpt, they end with an optimistic and promising view. A view that emotionally satisfies the reader and gives a hope that this battle to protect the environment is not over by any means. It is a hope in which we can definitely find alternative solutions too…hence cradle to cradle.

When typing “Cradle to Cradle” into the Google’s search engine, one can find that in fact Cradle to Cradle is a revolutionary design in aiding industries to go green. Their basis is to design products into patterns that are found in nature and eliminating waste so that these systems can create values that are inherently healthy and safe. This means using environmentally safe and healthy materials