The Upcycle - McDonough and Braungart - Part 2

The Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability--
Designing for Abundance
William McDonough &
Michael Braungart

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 20

 January 20, 2017 

Book 4 - The Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability--Designing for Abundance
by William McDonough and Michael Braungart (2013)

 Part 2 - Pages 53-119

Reading Time - 70 minutes

I love this book. Love it... It's such a sparkly book. These guys foresee a world in which regulations simply indicate that there is an opportunity for a redesign. We just have to identify the Need, have some Imagination and find the Materials.

For example... we all know incandescent light bulbs (the old ones) wasted a lot of energy. Then they designed CFL light bulbs... the curly ones. Not an Upcycle though cause CFLs have mercury in them. We're saving energy but polluting the environment with a highly toxic substance every time one of those ends up in the landfill. LED lights on the other hand... huge improvement over incandescent and CFL bulbs. The trick is... plan a clean product from the start, rather than cleaning up waste at the end. If we identify our values first... then we can start off on the right foot. If you don't... you end up creating bigger problems.

The EU countries want to use 20% sustainable energy by 2020. Some bright chipmunk decided that burning palm oil would be a good way for the EU to reach that goal. So, now the EU imports palm oil from Indonesia. Which means Indonesia is chopping down its native forests and planting palm oil trees by the thousands. Deforestation = increased erosion = less foliage = increased CO2 in the atmosphere. End result... worse for the atmosphere than what the EU has been doing. Humble apologies to all real mammalian chipmunks (but not the human ones).

If we're talking renewable energy then wind and solar are the ways to go. As the authors says "is changing to solar too big or are human invention and daring too small".

Back in 1992, there was a big conference in Germany that came up with the Hannover Principles for designing and creating the future. I present them here because they really spoke to me. There is hope.

The Hannover Principles (1992)

1. Insist on right of humanity and nature to coexist in a healthy, supportive, diverse and sustainable conditions.
2. Recognize Interdependence
3. Respect relationships between Spirit and Matter.
4. Accept responsibility for the consequences of design decisions upon human well-being, the viability of natural systems and their right to coexist.
5. Create safe objects of long-term value.
6. Eliminate the concept of waste.
7. Rely on natural energy flows.
8. Understand the limitations of design.
9. Seek constant improvement by the sharing of knowledge.

I could sign on for that! One last note... which I need to ponder... The way to do this is NOT to berate and scold companies... but to encourage them.