The Big Picture

Humans today have become inextricable with natural resources, so much so that they take from nature what they want and demand it to replenish itself.  The concept of biomimicry demands that humans learn to mimic the biological systems of nature. This concept gives way to nature’s principle that waste equals food in that “the very concept of waste does not exist.” (McDonough) From this notion, comes two proposed metabolisms – the biological metabolism (cycles of nature) and the technical metabolism (cycles of industry.)

Cradle-to-cradle is a related concept that opposes the traditional cradle-to-grave production cycle. Cradle-to-cradle works within either a biological metabolism or a technical metabolism and doesn’t consider the life of a product to end with one use. In discussing these concepts, the Roehner video argues that the question isn’t growth or no growth, the question is, can we follow nature’s laws?

I propose that instead of considering one product’s life-cycle, or one company’s product, we challenge the entire manufacturing industry to create a cradle-to-cradle approach. This concept could be considered more biomimetic in that it will mimic an entire ecosystem’s life-cycle, instead of just one individual. For example, as a tree cycles through its stages over the seasons, it is not self-reliant, it instead creates and utilizes the resources of other animals or plants cycles. The manufacturing industry should resemble a thriving ecosystem by working together to fuel each other through its outputs so that nothing goes to waste. This concept incorporates both metabolisms instead of separating the two because the natural outputs and the technical outputs can both be captured and sold to another factory needing the resource.

While designing cradle-to-cradle products themselves is important, on a larger scale it is vital to consider the entire production industry as a cyclical. Competition for resources is traditional, but cooperation is the future.