by Michael Braungart/ William Mc Donough

"I was tired of trying to be less bad", says Braungart when he speaks about his career as a consultant and engineer trying to promote and create simple and intelligent production processes.  And he refers to the well know feelings which control my own thinking quite regularly as well.

How often do I accuse myself of wasting too much energy, water, paper or other materials?  How often do I consider for hours which transport I should choose in order to have the smallest impact on the environment?  In addition my mind is racing to find ways of using less washing powder, because it is bad, or less electricity, because of the way it is produced, or less water etc…

Braungart argues that since the end of the 60s the entire production of goods is influenced by this attitude.  In Germany we have certificates and laws to reduce the use of chemicals in agriculture.  Greenpeace has been promoting for years to have cars which use less than 3 litre petrol for 100 km.  The European Union makes laws which set standards for the amount of a certain chemical being added in food.  There is an entire industry for “Energiesparhäuser” (energy saving houses), houses which need a small percentage of gas or oil to heat the rooms compared to the regular ones.

While reading this book I could identify myself quite often with exactly this attitude and along with that attitude the feeling of being guiltily aroused. 

Therefore I was even more surprised when I came across the key message of Braungart and McDonough.

In the authors opinion this movement is wrong!  It is wrong to create houses or cars which need less energy.  It is wrong to produce less!  It is wrong to reduce the use of dangerous chemical in food and clothes.  In fact the writers demand to produce more!

In order to illustrate what they mean they use nature as a role model.  A cherry tree for examples produces an incredible amount of blossoms and fruits to propagate with maybe just one new tree.  Yet, by being lavish it is home for many animals and gives food and nutrition to its neighbourhood.  Extravagancy works in nature because every product can be recycled, in fact it is created as well to be recycled.  The engineers give examples from their own work field. They have helped to design a production of a natural material, where the water, being used in the factory was cleaner after the process than before.  Braungart and McDounough also speak about  houses which are producing more energy that they use, which help to clean water and give living space not only to humans but also to many other living beings.

In my opinion these examples are the treasure of the book.  I discovered them as being a starting point for a new perspective on what to focus my thinking on.  I started dreaming of my own house, looking for technologies which already use the principles suggested by the two scientists.  How can we produce and design things to support life, creativity, beauty and harmony in an intelligent way.

In fact I started asking a question similar to the one Braungart asked himself.

Why use less of bad things when you can lavish with products which do not harm but support the environment?

And…

where to find them?

• Review by Felix Döppner

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