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William McDonough

William McDonough Books

Designer

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“Consider this: all the ants on the planet, taken together, have a biomass greater than that of humans. Ants have been incredibly industrious for millions of years. Yet their productiveness nourishes plants, animals, and soil. Human industry has been in full swing for little over a century, yet it has brought about a decline in almost every ecosystem on the planet. Nature doesn't have a design problem. People do.”

PeopleYearsHumansLittlesHas BeensProblemEarthTogetherNatureAnimalMillionsTakenGreaterCenturyDesignPlanetsIndustryPlantEnvironmentalProductivitySoilDeclineSwingsConsideringAntsNourishmentEcosystemsIndustriousBiomass
Book:Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
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“Peter Drucker has pointed out that it is a manager's job to "do things right." It is an executive's job to make sure "the right things" get done. Even the most rigorous eco-efficient business paradigm does not challenge basic practices and methods: a shoe, building, factory, car, or shampoo can remain fundamentally ill-designed even as the materials and processes involved in its manufacture become more "efficient."”

DoeDoneJobsProcessChallengesBusinessPracticeCarBuildingMaterialsInvolvedMethodShoesIllManagersRight ThingExecutivesFactoriesPeterEfficientParadigmEcoShampoo
Book:Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
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“Our concept of eco-effectiveness means working on the right things - on the right products and services and systems - 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.”

MeanHelpingPerfectBusinessProductsConceptsToolsRight ThingEfficiencyEffectivenessWrong ThingsDoing The Right ThingEco
Book:Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
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“Don't get me wrong: I love nuclear energy! It's just that I prefer fusion to fission. And it just so happens that there's an enormous fusion reactor safely banked a few million miles from us. It delivers more than we could ever use in just about 8 minutes. And it's wireless!”

UseHappensEnergyFunMillionsMinutesEnvironmentalNuclearMilesEnormousFusionWirelessNuclear BombNuclear EnergyFissionNuclear ReactorsNuclear FissionNuclear Fusion
Author:William McDonough
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“We celebrate the cherry tree not for its efficiency but for its effectiveness - and for its beauty. Its materials are in constant flow, and all those thousands of useless cherry blossoms look gorgeous. Then they fall to the ground and become soil again, so there's no problem”

LooksProblemFallNatureEnvironmentTreeMaterialsFlowConstantCelebrateUselessSoilEfficiencyNo ProblemGorgeousEffectivenessCherriesNatural EnvironmentCherry BlossomCherry Trees
Author:William McDonough
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“We see a world of abundance, not limits. In the midst of a great deal of talk about reducing the human ecological footprint, we offer a different vision. What if humans designed products and systems that celebrate an abundance of human creativity, culture, and productivity? That are so intelligent and safe, our species leaves an ecological footprint to delight in, not lament?”

IfsWorldHumansDifferentCultureDealsVisionCreativityProductsOffersSafeLimitsIntelligentSpeciesDelightProductivityCelebrateAbundanceMidstWhat IfReducingEcologicalFootprintLamentEcological Footprints
Author:William McDonough
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“And to use something as elegant as a tree? Imagine this design assignment: Design something that makes oxygen, sequesters carbon, fixes nitrogen, distills water, makes complex sugars and foods, changes colors with the seasons, and self-replicates. and then why don't we knock that down and write on it?”

WritingSelfUseWaterNatureImagineTreeDesignFoodColorSeasonsDown AndComplexesSugarCarbonElegantOxygenKnockingFixingAssignmentsReplicateNitrogenDistillation
Author:William McDonough
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“Recycling is more expensive for communities than it needs to be, partly because traditional recycling tries to force materials into more lifetimes than they are designed for - a complicated and messy conversion, and one that itself expends energy and resources. Very few objects of modern consumption were designed with recycling in mind. If the process is truly to save money and materials, products must be designed from the very beginning to be recycled or even "upcycled" - a term we use to describe the return to industrial systems of materials with improved, rather than degraded, quality.”

IfsNeedsTryingMindUseEnergyForceProcessTermCommunityQualityModernObjectsMaterialsProductsReturnResourcesLifetimeComplicatedConversionTraditionalExpensiveConsumptionMessySaving MoneyRecyclingRecycledReuse
Author:William McDonough
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