JJ Augenbraun ’11, guest blogger, comments on Cradle to Cradle, by Williams McDonough and Michale Braungart.
During reading period I had dinner at a friend’s house in Connecticut. While we were eating, my friend and I were discussing our campus jobs. When my friend’s dad heard that I was working at the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives at Williams, he started talking excitedly about what his company was doing to help the environment. He recommended that I read Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough and Michael Braungart. He loaned me his copy as I was leaving.
I started reading as soon as I got home, and I somehow managed to finish it within a few days of returning to school (that should prove how interesting the book is considering I sometimes don’t even have enough time to read my assigned class readings). The book suggests that rather than making things more efficient, we should focus on making them more effective. The authors call for a fundamental shift in thinking about designing everything from cars to houses. Rather than trying to recycle (which the authors refer to as downcycling due to the loss of quality on each iteration), we should be able to reuse at the same or higher quality materials used in a product.
As I was reading the book, I realized that our current system of making things more efficient is just a temporary fix. We must strive for more ambitious goals, as the authors suggest, and retool the way we think about making things. For example, the authors call for buildings that give back to the environment in much the same way trees do, cars that clean the air, and soaps/detergents that cleanse the water into which they are disposed. These shifts will take time, but are the right thing to do. Eventually, we will not be able to squeeze more energy savings from efficiency improvements such as switching to CFL’s or Energy Star appliances. Conservation can only take us so far in reducing our impact on the environment. These changes are currently the easiest and quickest to implement, but as the marginal return of increases in efficiency diminishes we must really rethink our design processes.
During the time I have spent at Williams, I have seen many improvements that would fall under this concept of efficiency improvements. These are great, but I would love to see more significant changes that the authors would classify as more of an effective solution then an efficiency solution. Maybe the College could fund the development of renewable energy sources in Williamstown. When I am biking I sometimes ride by Jiminy Peak, the view of the turbine on mountain makes me think how much I would love to see a wind turbine somewhere in Williamstown. Imagine if the College were powered entirely with locally produced renewable energy. That would really be a significant contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gases at the College. Something like a wind turbine may not be feasible in the short term, but we should be looking for ways to adopt more effective solutions rather than just do the same things more efficiently.
As a Zilkha Center Eco Rep, I have enjoyed making contributions to achieving the College’s goal of reducing carbon emissions. But I look forward to the time when we stop talking about efficiency increases and conservation efforts and start talking about ways to remake our entire way of thinking about energy consumption. Overall, I would highly recommend Cradle to Cradle to anyone who is interested in the possibilities for the future in terms of designing effectively and living in a sustainable manner.