Happy Earth Day!
To celebrate Earth Day the Green Team at Backcountry.com is rolling out employee energy saving incentives (CFL's and flow diverters) and a sustainable section to our company library. To roll out the library I am presenting "Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We make Things". I love this book because it is at the leading edge of sustainable commerce. The authors, an architect and a chemist, look at bio-mimicry with technology and ask questions like, "what would our world look like if designed by a cherry tree?" The result is a building with beauty, abundance, increased employee retention and energy cost savings. They take the idea of triple bottom line and push it farther to triple top line to include Economy, Ecology and Equity in the initial idea and design back from how a healthy and prosperous design could look.
With the food chain cycle of life concept where the waste or decomposition of one organism is the nutrients for another they define waste = food. They argue that most recycling is really downcycling because of improper mixing of nutrients in a way that diminishes their usefulness. If the design of a product considers end of life a beginning of life for something else the biological and technical nutrients can be used in ways that enhance their utility rather than degrade it at the outset.
The authors frequently site energy savings, lower overall costs of production (even with costlier raw materials) as well as health for people and the planet as outcomes of the work they have done with clients. There is also a cradle-to-cradle certification for products and packaging that follow the waste = food principle in design. The book is an invitation to become native to our planet with commerce as the engine of change in the re-evolution.
Exciting times.
Thanks for the recommendation! I'm downloading it from Audible. I'm intrigued by the concept that waste = food. Changing our behavior is difficult, though. I would welcome suggestions from you and other blog readers on the value of a compost heap and recycling. I'm also interested in the concept of managing micro-environments. Can you dig into that a little?
ReplyDeleteJen,
ReplyDeleteI'll create a new micro post as my comments don't allow links. Love your enthusiasm.
Sandi
Jen, I find that composting really cuts the amount of landfill-bound trash I generate, more than in half. In NYC, we can participate in community composting via the Lower East Side Ecology Center, which has drop-off points in several local parks. I get the "feel good" of visiting the park, along with the sense of not contributing to a chain of energy usage (human and fuel) to putting more stuff into a landfill.
ReplyDeleteThanks for recommending the book, Sandi.
Anne, thank you for information on composting in the city, love the "feel good" aspect! My dear friend Kate Temple-West (friendlyherbalist.com) does a lot of work with the Children's Magical Garden on the Lower East Side - composting, growing organic food and education. If you are in the area (Norfolk and Stanton) you might like to to check it out. I hope you enjoy the book.
ReplyDelete