William McDonough
William McDonough
William Andrews McDonough is an American designer, advisor, author, and thought leader. McDonough is founding principal of William McDonough + Partners, co-founder of McDonough Braungart Design Chemistrywith German chemist Michael Braungart as well as co-author of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things and The Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability—Designing for Abundance, also with Braungart. McDonough's career is focused on creating a beneficial footprint. He espouses a message that we can design materials, systems, companies, products, buildings, and communities that...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionArchitect
Date of Birth21 February 1951
CountryUnited States of America
There is no question that the U.S. economy, especially in relation to the world economy, is beginning to exhibit signs of imbalance and strain.
There are data saying that the economy is starting to recover, and there are data saying that it tends to be weak,
I dont think theres any likelihood in the world that he will reject the list,
Consider this: all the ants on the planet, taken together, have a biomass greater than that of humans. Ants have been incredibly industrious for millions of years. Yet their productiveness nourishes plants, animals, and soil. Human industry has been in full swing for little over a century, yet it has brought about a decline in almost every ecosystem on the planet. Nature doesn't have a design problem. People do.
Waste equals food, whether it's food for the earth, or for a closed industrial cycle. We manufacture products that go from cradle to grave. We want to manufacture them from cradle to cradle.
We have carbon in the atmosphere. That is a material in the wrong place problem. It's just like what I said about the lead. Lead in the biosphere is not good. Carbon in the atmosphere (over natural levels) is a problem.
In the end, the question is not, how do we use nature to serve our interests? It's how can we use humans to serve nature's interest?'
You don't filter smokestacks or water. Instead, you put the filter in your head and design the problem out of existence.
Sustainability takes forever. And that's the point.
In planetary terms, we're all downstream.
It would be nice if all that exuberance and abundance was connected to a deep ethos of planetary responsibility.
All these corporate reports say they want zero carbon. Well that is ridiculous, because you are not telling us what you are, you are telling us what you are not.
Imagine walking into a grocery there is a jar sitting there with a lid on it saying it's not carbon. That is ridiculous. It's an empty jar.
It's going to sound strange probably. But I really like Frank Gehry's works.