GAS QUE UTILIZAN LOS APARATOS DEL HOTEL R-22

3. Harrelson, the owner of the garbage barge, had good intentions. He wanted to use the garbage to make methane, a useful product. Should the various governments of the United States and other countries have been more helpful to him since his inten- tions were admirable? What might be the proper and right governmental responses to plights of private citizens, such as Harrelson?

1.3 SUSTAINABILITY AND CRADLE-TO-CRADLE DESIGN

The prosperity of the Western world can be considered to be largely a product of the Indus- trial Revolution. While the industrialization of the past two centuries produced enormous benefits, it also left us with a legacy of unintended and negative consequences: vast quantities of waste, the depletion of natural resources, and the contamination of people and ecosystems with toxic substances dispersed throughout the planet.

The Industrial Revolution is partially based on a cradle-to-grave model with a pattern of “take, make, and waste.” Products go from being raw materials to products and then to waste in very short order. While a product itself may be intended for rapid consump- tion, it may generate waste that stays around for hundreds of years. For example, some food items need to stay fresh for just a few days, but they are packaged in materials that could take hundreds of years to decompose by natural processes in the environment. In the past few decades, scientists, engineers, and policymakers have begun to address the deficiencies of this unsustainable model and to define and experiment with what would be desirable.

Many people have looked to nature for inspiration and models of more sustainable ways to create and manage chemicals, materials, and products in society. Sustainable mate- rials management (SMM) has emerged as “an approach to promote sustainable materials use, integrating actions targeted at reducing negative environmental impacts and preserv- ing natural capital throughout the life-cycle of materials, taking into account economic efficiency and social equity.”10

1.3.1

Framework for Sustainability

In 1989, a framework for sustainability called The Natural Step emerged from Sweden through the efforts of Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt, a leading Swedish oncologist.11_{This frame-} work provides a set of four system conditions that define a sustainable society based on the laws of thermodynamics and natural cycles. The Natural Step System Conditions con- sider the Earth as a closed system for materials and as an open system for energy that sustains life through a complex interactive network of material cycles that uses solar energy to counteract the tendency of materials to dissipate and otherwise increase in entropy.

Therefore, for a society to be sustainable, nature must not be subjected to the following systematically increasing processes:11

1. Extracting concentrations of substances from the Earth’s crust. This condition refers to the extraction of minerals and fossil fuels. Substances that are scarce in nature should be substituted with those that are more abundant. Mined materials should be used efficiently and recycled, and dependence on fossil fuels should be systematically reduced.

24 Chapter 1 Identifying and Solving Environmental Problems Society’s cycles 1 2 3 4 5 Nature’s cycles

Figure 1.7 Ecological aspects of The Natural Step System Conditions.(Illustrated by Larry Chalfan and Lauren Heine)

2. Building up concentrations of human-made compounds in nature. This condition refers to the manufacture of persistent and unnatural compounds. Persistent and unnatural compounds should be replaced with those that are normally abundant and or that break down completely and easily in nature. All substances produced by society should be used efficiently.

3. Utilizing renewable resources at rates faster than they are regenerated and

reducing the productive capacity of nature. This condition refers to the use of

natural resources. Resources should be drawn only from well managed ecosys- tems, systematically pursuing the most productive and sustainable uses both of those resources and land, and exercising caution in all kinds of modification of nature.

And in that society:

4. People are able to meet their needs worldwide. This condition means using all of our resources efficiently, effectively, fairly and responsibly so that the needs of all people, including the future needs of people who are not yet born, stand the best chance of being met.

The ecological aspects of The Natural Step System Conditions are illustrated in Figure 1.7. Materials flow in a closed system comprised of two loops. The outer loop represents the cycling of materials within earth’s ecosystems. The inner loop represents cycling within the industrial/economic system. Arrow 1 represents the extraction of natu- ral resources for use in the industrial/economic system. In a sustainable society, the rate of natural resource extraction equals the rate of regeneration. Arrows 2 and 3 represent the extraction and resettling of materials from the earth’s crust, primarily fossil fuel and mined materials. In a sustainable society, material extraction from the earth’s crust will be displaced by the use of recycled and recyclable materials. Arrows 4 and 5 represent sub- stances that flow from the industrial/economic system to the greater ecosystem. Substances that assimilate quickly without harm are represented by Arrow 4. Arrow 5 represents sub- stances that are toxic, persistent, bioaccumulative, or otherwise cause harm to humans or the environment. In a sustainable society, Arrow 5 will disappear.

1.3 Sustainability and Cradle-to-Cradle Design 25

1.3.2

Cradle-to-Cradle Design

One of the leading practical strategies for achieving sustainable materials management is through positive industrial activity, called “cradle-to-cradle” design. The term “cradle-to- cradle was coined in the 1970s by Walter Stahel and Michael Braungart. The key principles of cradle-to-cradle design were first systematically outlined as the Intelligent Product Sys- tem (IPS) by Braugart et al. in 1992 and further developed and articulated by Michael Braungart and William McDonough in 2002 in their book Cradle to Cradle: Remak-

ing the Way We Make Things.12 Just as in natural systems where one organism’s waste becomes food for another, cradle-to-cradle design applies the same concept to the design of human industry. Cradle-to-cradle design defines two metabolisms within which materials are conceived as nutrients circulating benignly and productively through metabolisms. Bio- logical nutrients cycle within biological metabolisms, and technical nutrients cycle within technical metabolisms.

Biological metabolism is the system of natural processes that supports life. Biolog-

ical processes are cyclical, ultimately fueled by the energy of the sun, and include the biodegradation (and possibly other forms of degradation) of organic materials and their incorporation into organisms. Materials that contribute to the productivity of biological metabolisms are biological nutrients. They are renewable, degradable, and ecologically benign. Products of industry made from biological nutrients can be integrated into natu- ral or engineered biological metabolisms, including water treatment processes and organic processing systems such as composting or anaerobic digestion. The output of biological metabolisms can be resources that engender new biological nutrients, such as beneficial soil amendments. Products that are intended for release to the environment should designed as biological nutrients that are benign for their intended functional use.

Industry can also mimic natural processes by creating technical metabolisms that cir- culate technical nutrients. Technical nutrients are typically nonrenewable and they are valuable for their performance qualities. Examples include metals such as copper or aluminum. When designed in cradle-to-cradle systems, technical nutrients can be recov- ered and recycled over and over—without degrading their quality and without harm to handlers—into similar or dissimilar products. Some companies view the materials in their products as so valuable that they even engage in leasing programs whereby products are essentially leased from the manufacturer to the customer until they are no longer wanted. Then the manufacturer will take them back for remanufacturing of the valuable materials and components into new products. Technical nutrients can be designed for reuse within a company or between companies in similar or dissimilar industries, depending on the material. Products made from technical nutrients should be designed to facilitate material recovery at its highest value with minimal expenditure of energy and cost.

Cradle-to-cradle design, as described by McDonough and Braungart, uses a model of human industry based on three design principles derived from natural systems.

1. Use current solar income. With very few exceptions, life on earth is ultimately fueled by energy from the sun. We are only beginning to expand our capacity to harness solar energy, directly and indirectly, for human purposes.

2. Celebrate diversity. Natural systems thrive on richness and diversity. Likewise, industry should promote the development of diverse products that are fitting for different preferences, cultures, geographies, and ecosystems.

26 Chapter 1 Identifying and Solving Environmental Problems

3. Waste equals food. There is no waste in nature. The product of one organism is food or structure for another. Human systems can also be designed to circulate materials productively, eliminating the concept of waste.

Some people call for a strategy of eco-efficiency: to reduce the amount of resources used and to generate less waste in industrial activities. But eco-efficiency alone is not a strong enough strategy for sustainability. Improvements in eco-efficiency are often quickly overwhelmed by increases in demand. For example, improvement in automobile fuel effi- ciency has been offset by an increase in the number of cars on the roads and the number of miles driven. Think of eco-efficiency as a way to slow the loss of resources, similar to helping a wound bleed slowly and not hemorrhage. Cradle-to-cradle design calls for eco-

effectiveness, which is analogous to healing the wound and supporting the health of the

whole body. Eco-effectiveness is concerned with increasing cyclical material flows (hence “effectiveness”), so waste equals food.

By redesigning industry based on nature’s models, economic activity can reinforce, rather than compromise, social and environmental prosperity. While this may sound a bit like pie in the sky, there are some unintended benefits of using cradle-to-cradle as a design strategy. First of all, it drives innovation. Businesses are always looking for new ideas and ways to distinguish their businesses, to add more value to their products, and, of course, to make more profit. Cradle-to-cradle design stimulates fresh thinking and creativity. Accord- ing to Roger McFadden, now chief science officer and vice president for product science and technology for Corporate Express A Staples Company, “Chemical product manufac- turers should recognize the opportunity that the sustainability movement is creating for innovation. The movement is exciting in part because it is driving real product innovation and development of new raw materials for formulation after a long period of incremental change.”13

What are the benefits of products designed for cradle-to-cradle systems? For one, the public is in an increasingly green mood! Given the opportunity to buy two products with similar performance and similar price, who would not prefer to buy the one with greener chemicals and innovative packaging that eliminates waste? Cradle-to-cradle design also drives creativity around new business models. For example, products designed as technical nutrients can be viewed as products of service. If you think about it, do people really need to own computers or televisions? (Now you are sure we are dreaming, right?) What people really want is to be able to afford and select the highest-quality equipment possible for their unrestricted enjoyment in the privacy of their homes (or offices). If when you were ready to change your model, you knew that you could conveniently return the product to the manufacturer and that its components would be reused or remade, would you mind? We predict not, especially if its return brought you value, such as refunds or discounts toward the next item of service that you desire.

Cradle-to-cradle thinking may come as second nature to environmental engineers, who are charged with protecting both human health and the environment and who learn to design material flow systems for materials such as water and wastewater. Rather than treating the waste at the end of the pipe, environmental engineers can use the tools of the trade to design sustainable systems up front that reuse valuable resources without degrad- ing their quality over time. While we cannot deny the current presence of unsustainable infrastructure, it should not deter us from improving designs and applying cradle-to-cradle

1.3 Sustainability and Cradle-to-Cradle Design 27

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