Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things

The authors argue that humanity, particularly Westerners, must discard our entire industrial system in favor of a new one, and that we will not fix our environmental problems if we try and work within the same framework that created those problems. One of the epigraphs to Cradle to Cradle is a quote by Albert Einstein, which encapsulates this theme: “The world will not evolve past its current state of crisis be using the same thinking that created the situation”(Epigraph).

The authors explain the logic behind our current way of thinking: “We are accustomed to thinking of industry and the environment as being at odds with each other, because conventional methods of extraction, manufacture, and disposal are destructive to the natural world” (6). Our current approach to rectify this problem of industry being bad for nature is simply, in the authors words, is to be “less bad.” One of the problems with the “be less bad” approach is that it is negative worldview:

Instead of presenting an inspiring and exciting vision of change, conventional environmental approaches focus on what not to do. Such proscriptions can be seen as a kind of guilt management for our collective sins, a familiar placebo in Western culture (66).