Cradle to Cradle: Sustain by Design
William McDonough, in The Wisdom of Designing Cradle to Cradle (a must see for all designers, ecologists and human beings in general), asks what our design intention is as a dominant species? And what is the first question for designers? Because so much design is begun from the wrong question which leads to products which ultimately pollute the environment and poison our children. Design should be asking the first question – not growth or no growth but what do you want to grow?
How can it be good design to create a rubber duck toy which pollutes the environment and causes cancer in children? Or to have systems which release plastic bags or phosophorous or whatever madness into the environment in an unsustainable way? That’s not bad environmental management – its simply bad design.
In The Wisdom of Designing Cradle to Cradle (entirely tongue in cheek) he asks you to:
Imagine this design assignment. Design something that makes oxygen, sequesters carbon, fixes nitrogen, distills water, accrues solar energy to make fuel, makes complex sugars and food, creates microclimates, changes colour with the seasons and self replicates. Why don’t we knock that down and write on it?William McDonough
Cradle to Cradle, a book written with the German chemist Michael Braungart, is a manifesto calling for the transformation of human industry through ecologically intelligent design. Their website has case studies available of their work with companies like Nike, Ford and others. They are currently consulting with the Chinese government on the design of intelligent cities which won’t deplete their resources. Crucial to this is the design philosophy that waste is food.
The documentary Waste = Food directed by Rob van Hattum is another powerful look at Cradle to Cradle design. Apparently it can be purchased in the full 49 minute DVD from EnhanceTV. If you’ve got time please consider watching it because it follows into those case studies.
Recycling isn’t enough. The whole idea of cradle to cradle design is feeding products back into themselves to become sustainable biological and technical systems. For example, the Nike case study is about a pair of shoes with a recyclable top and biodegradable sole so you wear one set of shoes into the factory and can wear another form of the same product as you leave. The same applies to houses, cars and anything else you can think of designing. The waste of one cycle feeds in as food in the next cycle.
Ultimately as a species we’re at a pivotal point where we need to ask these hard questions – what are we desiging for? And designers what questions are you asking when you design? It should be about the design of a whole lifecycle rather than the design of a fast commodity between component manufacturers and consumers.
That plastic bag isn’t a bi-product of your design but a part of it. Its time for designers to take some responsiblity in the design process. Cradle to cradle makes sense.
