Castell de somnis de Francesc Aguilar

//*// En l'era de la plaga dels set mil milions d'humans //*//

6 de gener de 2012
0 comentaris

Cradle to cradle: Redissenyant la forma en que fem les coses

He llegit aquest llibre de William McDonough & Michael Braungart del qual podeu trobar referències en la seva web.

Un llibre generalista que fonamenta les bases per a un eco-disseny que no es conforma amb minimitzar l’acció destructora de l’espècie humana, sinó un eco-disseny que aposta per regenerar el planeta i les relacions de l’ésser humà amb el treball creatiu amb una plusvàlua de benestar i riquesa per a tots.

Trobo al llibre una lliçó que tant serveix per a salvar el planeta de l’actual amenaça humana com per la supervivència de Catalunya: Cal afrontar els problemes en tota la seva magnitud. O som valents i ambiciosos en implantar solucions que de veritat ho siguin i no només retarden la fi, o som radicalment creatius o el planeta i el país se’n van en orris. D’altra banda trobo a faltar a l’enraonament del llibre una vessant política que més bé fa presagiar un col·laboracionisme amb les grans corporacions existents que ara controlen la societat industrial a fi de dissenyar les seves campanyes de màrqueting verd…

 

Aqui un text clarificador dels autors:

Imagine a world in which all the things we make, use, and consume provide nutrition for nature and industry—a world in which growth is good and human activity generates a delightful, restorative ecological footprint.

While this may seem like heresy to many in the world of sustainable development, the destructive qualities of today’s cradle-to-grave industrial system can be seen as the result of a fundamental design problem, not the inevitable outcome of consumption and economic activity. Indeed, good design—principled design based on the laws of nature—can transform the making and consumption of things into a regenerative force.

This new conception of design—known as cradle-to-cradle design—goes beyond retrofitting industrial systems to reduce their harm. Conventional approaches to sustainability often make the efficient use of energy and materials their ultimate goal. While this can be a useful transitional strategy, it tends to reduce negative impacts without transforming harmful activity. Recycling carpet, for example, might reduce consumption, but if the attached carpet backing contains PVC, which most carpet backing does, the recycled product is still on a one-way trip to the landfill, where it becomes hazardous waste.

Cradle-to-cradle design, on the other hand, offers a framework in which the effective, regenerative cycles of nature provide models for wholly positive human designs. Within this framework we can create economies that purify air, land, and water, that rely on current solar income and generate no toxic waste, that use safe, healthful materials that replenish the earth or can be perpetually recycled, and that yield benefits that enhance all life.

Over the past decade, the cradle-to-cradle framework has evolved steadily from theory to practice. In the world of industry it is creating a new conception of materials and material flows. Just as in the natural world, in which one organism’s “waste” cycles through an ecosystem to provide nourishment for other living things, cradle-to-cradle materials circulate in closed-loop cycles, providing nutrients for nature or industry. This model recognizes two metabolisms within which materials flow as healthy nutrients.

First, nature’s nutrient cycles constitute the biological metabolism. Materials designed to flow optimally in the biological metabolism are biological nutrients. Products conceived as these nutrients, such as biodegradable packaging, are designed to be used and safely returned to the environment to nourish living systems. Second, the technical metabolism, designed to mirror the earth’s cradle-to-cradle cycles, is a closed-loop system in which valuable, high-tech synthetics and mineral resources—technical nutrients—circulate in a perpetual cycle of production, recovery, and remanufacture. Ideally, all the human systems that make up the technical metabolism are powered by the renewable energy of the sun.”

En conclusió, un llibre que paga la pena llegir per recarregar d’entusiasme utòpic i nous arguments la nostra activitat ecologista, especialment l’ecodisseny.

Deixa un comentari

L'adreça electrònica no es publicarà. Els camps necessaris estan marcats amb *

Aquest lloc està protegit per reCAPTCHA i s’apliquen la política de privadesa i les condicions del servei de Google.

Us ha agradat aquest article? Compartiu-lo!