Cradle to Cradle

I found a great article in the most recent "Vanity Fair" about William McDonough who believes in a "Cradle to Cradle" philosophy. He doesn't like that the legislation that has resulted from the environmental movement only seeks to make things "less bad" rather than actually good.

As an architect, one of his most important buildings was at Oberlin College. The building puts out more energy than it uses. It is also built so that the entire building can be disassembled (not destroyed) and its elements used again in more buildings.

Here's a better explanation of his ideal:

He wants to "make a five-year car that allows for industry to transform the technology at high speed toward the Cradle to Cradle concept. The five-year car is a car whose material are all coherent and tagged. In fact, all materials in the car have 'passports.' So we know where they come from, and we know where they're going--back to the automakers--after five years of utility, so the car could be recycled and updated with the latest in safety and efficiency ... They keep making cars out of the same stuff."

The "Cradle to Cradle" ideal promotes growth and jobs because it's goal is that each product has zero waste. Waste=Food is his mantra, because if you build it right, all waste can become the food for something else.

It's a very good kind of environmentalism.