The Five Steps to Reinventing the World, Step 4: The Active Positive List

(excerpt from an article in November/December 2001 Green@Work magazine)

by William McDonough and Michael Braungart

When forward-thinking companies adopt eco-effective design, most don't re-invent themselves overnight. Instead, they take up the strategy step-by-step, employing an ever-broadening ability to refine and ultimately transform materials, products, manufacturing systems and even the relationship between producers and customers.

The first three steps of the eco-effective strategy, which we have described in previous columns, are essentially a process of editing and refinement: Aiming to make safe, healthful products within the framework of current manufacturing and marketing systems, designers progressively weed out and replace an existing product's ecologically harmful ingredients. From Step One to Three, designers move from redefining products as "free of" one particularly dangerous substance to selecting all product ingredients from a well-defined menu of safe materials.

At Step Four we enter the realm of true eco-effectiveness, where designers aim to create products and systems that are not simply "less bad" but which actually generate a broad spectrum of positive effects. At this point on the five-step path, the idea is not to limit the impact of a product but to conceive goods and services that create ecological, social and economic value.

This step is particularly delightful because it is founded on the idea that every product can be a nutrient. When designers employ the intelligence of natural systems-the effectiveness of nutrient cycling, the abundance of the sun's energy-they can create products that provide nourishment for something new after each useful life. Every element of a product can be conceived as "food" for either biological cycles (the systems of nature) or technical cycles (the systems of industry). And when these biological nutrients and technical nutrients flow within their respective cycles, they allow both nature and commerce to thrive and grow.

Consider the automobile. A designer tasked with developing an eco-effective car would first learn everything about the materials and manufacture of the vehicle. She would then develop a list of materials, her Active Positive List, which would include only those ingredients defined as biological or technical nutrients. These might include a biodegradable upholstery fabric that would abrade safely during the life of the car and provide food for the soil afterward. The car would also be designed for disassembly so that valuable technical materials like steel or plastic-food for industry-could be retrieved and reused again and again.

Though brilliantly conceived, such a car might fall short of perfection. Reinventing existing products within the framework of the current system is challenging work. Even a product actively defined as nutritious might not flow effectively through today's deeply flawed industrial metabolism. If a furniture-maker, for instance, glued a safe, healthy fabric-such as our Climatex Lifecycle line-to a plastic chair, a material designed to be channeled into the biological metabolism would more likely end up in the landfill.

But the eco-effective strategy is designed for this time of transition. The steps are cumulative and lay the foundation for true innovation. As more and more companies begin to conceive products as nutrients, coherent systems of delivery, reclamation and reuse are sure to follow.

Indeed, we are working with companies that are already upcycling, adding value to retrieved materials. BASF, for example, retrieves used nylon 6 fiber and transforms it into an improved fiber that is inherently stain resistant, inherently colorfast, and infinitely recyclable. The nylon is rematerialized, not dematerialized-a truly revolutionary product.

On the heels of BASF, manufacturers of everything from running shoes to automobiles are designing and implementing new ways to circulate valuable materials. Soon, our cumulative knowledge of all the materials in our products and the ways in which they circulate through the world will allow us to assign each material an active passport: We'll know what they are, where they came from, and where they are going.

For economic reasons, too, we think it's extremely important to begin reinventing existing products today, within the context of the current system. Reaching for Step Four now not only gives companies a jump on the long process of innovation, it allows a product to stay in production and in the marketplace, maintaining demand, recognition and value.

In fact, moving a product through the steps of eco-effective design results in an accumulation of quality and value, creating wealth for people and nature. The positive impacts of materials designed as nutrients extend from the molecule to the region; from the effects of a compostable fabric on local soils to a world of products produced from materials that will never see the landfill. In such a world, commerce is a regenerative force, and the positive changes unleashed by a company's creativity show vision, intelligence and a willingness to lead.

We can't imagine a better way to do business.

Previous Monthly Features:

May 2001, "The Five Steps to Reinventing the World" (Step 1: Free of...)

June 2001, "Positive Design Decisions in an Imperfect Market" (Step 2: Personal Preference)

July 2001, "Textile Mills Lead Another Revolution"

August 2001, "Synthetic Materials for Eco-Effective Design"

September 2001, "Transforming Product Design within Current Production Systems" (Step 3: The Passive Positive List)

October 2001, "Do you know what they want to do now?" by Tim O'Brien, Director, Ford Environmental Quality Office