Cradle to Cradle Ch. 6

Cradle to Cradle Ch. 6

Putting Eco-Effectiveness into Practice

-The original factory (called Rouge) of Ford cars is in Michigan and after so many years of use by the end of the century not only was the Rouge was on its last limb, but also the land around it.  But instead of moving and developing a new clean area, Ford’s great grandson decided to make the Rouge “native to its place”.

-During the great depression not only did Ford have an assembly line, he also made a dis-assembly line to reuse and process parts of old cars.

-ISO is International Standards of Organization, which is a certification that means you are a leader in environmental concerns instead of just waiting for regulators to moderate it.

-Most manufacturing companies try to hide the pollution and when found out, they just move the waste and bury it somewhere else

-The Rouge is a good model, because they owned up to their mistakes and don’t just want to clean up, but want to create a healthy environment that gives back and that the employees “own children can play in”.

-The more sustainable the company got, the more it found new opportunities to help the environment at a lower cost.

-They used green roofs and other native plants on the surroundings of the factory to manage storm water and to naturally clean the water moving from the factory site to the nearby river.

-Their factories are now being built with the occupants in mind, when considering air, day lighting, and temperature

Five Steps to Eco-Effectiveness

Step 1. Get “Free of” Known Culprits

-If something is “free of” something, it does not mean that there is something worse in it.

-There was a company that wanted to make a chlorine free plastic container because that is what everyone was worried about, but they still kept the polyurethane and heavy metals in the product.  “Pollution free” is a better goal.

-Designing to look at what does not need to be included in products, such as mercury and PVC, is what needs to be done instead of worrying about it at the end of production.

Step 2. Follow informed Personal Preferences

-You may want to use products that are eco-effective, but if you don’t know the ingredients there is no way to know which decisions are better, even if they appear at first to be better

-Prefer ecological intelligence: Pick things that are not blatantly harmful, and make informed choices even in the “unknown”

-Refer respect: respect for product makers, local communities where it is made, handlers and transporter, and the customer- respect also is when the advertising matches the inside

-Prefer delight, celebration, and fun:  More than making the people feel guilty for not choosing “eco” products is improving life and pleasure through “eco”.

Step 3. Creating a “Passive Positive” list

-The X list: These include carcinogens and other deadly ingredients like cancer causing ingredients like asbestos

-The gray list: These are products that are not directly harmful and/or are needed but do not have a better replacement, like using Cadmium to produce photovoltaic solar collectors and controlling the Cadmium waste, rather than using Cadmium in batteries, which would just get thrown in a landfill and would harm others

-The P list: These are positive or preferred ingredients that are tested and know to be safe, healthy, and possibly helpful to the environment, which would mean the beginning of trading harmful for help, which does not mean, for instance, to change colors but to switch to a different blue ingredient composition

Step 4. Activate the Positive List

-Now that you know the ingredients and are designing from start to finish, there is no need to continue replacing ingredients, but now you can start from scratch using the most helpful ingredients making food for biological or technologic processes

Step 5. Reinvent

-For example, instead of designing a car to limit and reduce negative emissions, design for the car to emit positive emissions and as much of it as possible

-This can even apply to things that have not been created yet

Five Guiding Principles

-The movement to Step 5 takes time, money, effort, and creative thinking, companies like Nike have already stared on this path

Signal Your Intention

-It is important to announce direction and make sure everyone is on the same page throughout the organization

-If having no care for the ingredients and disposal of a solar panel, then an energy problem has been replaced with a materials problem

Restore

-Design to give back bio and techno nutrients, use natural processes in when doing normal tasks, like filtering water, and create new habitats for life instead of taking it away

Be Ready to Innovate Further

-Perfection is not a reachable goal, because there will always be new creations, so it is important to be able to be flexible and “open to ‘feedforward,’ not just feedback.”

Understand and Prepare for the Learning Curve

-We need to understand that there is a need to supply time and at least some resources for developing, or evolution will never happen

Integrate Intergenerational Responsibility

-We can’t have the mind set of doing what we want and letting the next generation take care of the mess, or not realize that leaving a mess for the next generation is what we are doing

-“This is going to take us all, and it is going to take forever.  But then, that’s the point.”