Cradle to Cradle summary

Industry leaders realized they had to take some steps to prevent serious ecological consequences. The result? A new concept called eco-efficiency.

Eco-efficiency means getting the most output from the power, material and time that is put into production, while also generating less waste and pollution. That’s what led to the 3R trend: reduce, reuse, recycle. We’re all familiar with the 3R’s, which seem to be a smart and simple solution. Or are they? Let’s dig a little deeper.

It’s clear that our world needs a more thorough model than the 3 R’s. Instead of aiming to make our production processes less harmful, we should be striving to create an industry that is 100 percent helpful.

Eco-efficiency provides only an illusion of improvement. It’s true that energy efficient buildings have drastically reduced the use of oil for heating and cooling via better insulation and leak-proof windows. But meanwhile they’re actually contributing to indoor air pollution from poorly designed building materials. People need more fresh air circulating through buildings, not less!

It’s time we abandon our attempts to be efficient and start being effective instead. By getting rid of the product-to-waste system, we’ll make room for a new product-to-product approach: the cradle-to-cradle model.

Eco-effectiveness entails focusing on the right kinds of products, services and systems – ones that can truly help the world. Instead of trying to control nature, we must begin to engage with it instead. This may require a complete shift in perspective and radical change in the products we take for granted today.

The first step toward eco-effectiveness is attacking waste. But is it possible to stop producing waste altogether?

We produce waste because we don’t differentiate between biological and technical materials. Biological materials are those that can be safely returned to the environment. Technical materials are dangerous to the environment and shouldn’t be thrown out.

The way you run your business is not the way you would run it if you were based in Tokyo, right? Not every place is the same, and it’s critical that we respect local differences and address environmental issues accordingly.

Your sustainability will be maximized when you make the most of what your local area has to offer. One fantastic example is a 1992 project in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where a model waste treatment system was opened that used locally fabricated clay pipes to carry wastewater away from the village into a settling tank. From there, the wastewater was fed into a series of smaller ponds containing a great diversity of plants, microbes, snails, fish and shrimp.

Now that you’ve got an insight into how industry damages the environment and what we can do about it, it’s time to apply the lessons in these blinks to your product.

First, you can explore ways of eliminating the damage you do to the environment, perhaps by excluding harmful substances such as PVC, cadmium, lead and mercury.