The Upcycle

"With their landmark work on designing zero-waste merchandise, Cradle to Cradle, architect McDonough and chemist Braungart launched a revolutionary program that encourages manufacturers to substitute environmentally unfriendly products with those that generate as few toxic footprints as possible. In consulting for corporations as far afield as Ford and Nike, the pair has demonstrated that nonpolluting goods, from carpets to shoes, can win consumers over without sacrificing the bottom line. Now the authors take their sustainability philosophy an inspired step further, arguing that industries can do better than simply trimming down the garbage and instead become 'part of the natural cycle of regeneration on the planet.' Drawing on multiple examples from nature's endless food chain, where one creature's waste becomes nutrition for others, McDonough and Braungart debunk the notion that ecological measures inevitably steal profits from business and joy from life. The authors' many reports on industry innovators give readers a peek into a future where mankind might one day stop destroying the environment and, instead, add to its abundance."—Carl Hays, Booklist

Praise for Cradle to Cradle

"Asking how a cherry tree would design an energy-efficient building is only one of the creative ‘practices' that McDonough and Braungart spread before their readers. This book will give you renewed hope that, indeed, ‘it is darkest before the dawn.'"—Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club