Reading Reflection 3

Cradle to Cradle by McDonough - Chapter 1-6

Cradle to Cradle is unique in its approach to identifying the issues of sustainability and environmental awareness. The author begins by describing the history of human development in terms of production and how we have come to identify our current methods of production as being futile to our own  survival. The experiences and examples that are described throughout each chapter make it easy to identify with the author's point of view and understand the proposed solutions. In the first chapter McDonough talks about the evolution of the industrial age and its effects on the deterioration of our living environment but he points out that the solution to the current manufacturing and design problems is not a reversal to the pre-industrial age. McDonough suggests a "strategy of change" rather than becoming involved in the "strategy of tragedy."

Chapter two is focused on re-designing our view of sustainability and eco-efficiency. McDonough points out that eco-efficiency as pursued by most of our society today is a failing strategy since it does not reach deep enough. Efficiency must address all processes, materials, and designs involved in the creation, use, and disposal of the products and objects in our environment. It is only through a new and holistic approach to production and consumption that we are able to achieve efficiency. McDonough' description of eco-effectiveness as "working on the right thing instead of making the wrong thing less bad" is a holistic approach to efficiency and sustainability. One of my favorite parts of this book is this sentence: Just about every process has side effects. But they can be deliberate and sustaining instead of unintended and pernicious. I think as designers, it should be our goal to design a life cycle for our design and plan for the unexpected.

In McDonough's view of sustainability, it is the responsibility of all of us to think of the biological and technical byproducts of our designs and processes and find intended destinations for them. The idea of cradle to cradle is to find a new beginning for the end, to be able to keep diversity by small changes like investing in local resources, and to learn the big lessons that nature offers in small ways.