Cradle to Cradle Audiobook By William McDonough, Michael Braungart cover art

Cradle to Cradle

Remaking the Way We Make Things

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Cradle to Cradle

By: William McDonough, Michael Braungart
Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
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"Reduce, reuse, recycle," urge environmentalists. In other words, do more with less in order to minimize damage. William McDonough and Michael Braungart argue in this provocative book that this approach perpetuates a one-way, "cradle to grave" manufacturing model that dates back to the Industrial Revolution, a model that casts off as much as 90 percent of the materials it uses as waste, much of it toxic. They challenge the notion that human industry must inevitably damage the natural world.

Why not take nature itself as our model? A tree produces thousands of blossoms in order to create another tree, yet we do not consider its abundance wasteful but safe, beautiful, and highly effective. "Waste equals food" is the first principle the book sets forth. Products might be designed so that, after their useful life, they provide nourishment for something new - either as "biological nutrients" that safely re-enter the environment or as "technical nutrients" that circulate within closed-loop industrial cycles without being "downcycled" into low-grade uses (as most "recyclables" now are).

Elaborating their principles from experience redesigning everything from carpeting to corporate campuses, the authors make an exciting and viable case for change.

©2002 William McDonough and Michael Braungart (P)2008 Tantor Conservation Ecology Economics Engineering Environment Environmental Environmental Economics Industrial & Manufacturing Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Science Pollution

Critic reviews

"An inspiring reminder that humans are capable of much more elegant environmental solutions than the ones we've settled for in the last half-century." ( Publishers Weekly)
"A readable provocative treatise that 'gets outside the box' in a huge way. Timely and inspiring." ( Kirkus)
Important Environmental Concepts • Practical Sustainability Ideas • Phenomenal Narration • Mind-blowing Perspective
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Great introductory book to green design, but can get a bit repetitive as the book goes on. There are some good nuggets in here, if you can get around the narrators very high-brow tone and the books "beat me over the head" lessons. Slow going, but worth the listen in the long run.

Slow but worthwhile

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This is a must-listen/read for creators, consumers, business owners, laborers, and all walks of life in between.
It can be a bit demoralizing when you consider how prolific at producing waste and polluting our world and, by extension, our own bodies.
But ultimately it is a call to action to rethink the way we interact with our landscape at every level.

Required Reading for Thoughtful Humans

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so important. I hope this book gets out to all business leaders and as quickly as possible

Should be a world wide requirement all businesses

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I came across this book as a tenth grader and found the first few pages mind-blowing at the time. After finally listening to it, years later, in full, I am still quite impressed. The concepts discussed are fascinating, and more importantly, NECESSARY TO IMPLEMENT, if there is to be any hope of future quality of life on planet Earth.

I say all that with the small disclaimer that the tone and choice of words do carry a white/western/male perspective. I include that, not to disparage that perspective, but to remind people that other perspectives do exist. Contributions from various perspectives should be included in the conversations and research surrounding sustainability, as the book itself subtly acknowledges.

Regret to say that the much-needed message of the book is a little overshadowed by the reader's inflection, which isn't monotonous, exactly, but repetitive. It makes paying attention more difficult, and the replayability virtually non-existent, for me. I have since obtained physical copies of both this book and its successor, "The Upcycle".

Great Book, Sub-par Narrator

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takes a bit to get going. Stick with it. Once you do, you will enjoy. I didn't mind repetition -reinforces concepts and themes. A product of its time -written 22 years ago. Pretty radical for that time. Do think it ignores some underlying premises regarding a need for limits on growth, profits, consumption and population. but in theory does seem to make a lot of sense. We should live in concert with nature we should model our systems after nature. We should give more than we take. The design principles could, and should be universally adopted.

Instructive -all should read

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Great book with great ideas! I would highly recommend this book to any aspiring environmentalists!

Great

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Every year, I pick a topic to read and learn about. This year’s topic was sustainability. Friends who are well-versed and well-read in this area recommended this book as a good starting point, so I expected it to provide more theory and fewer anecdotal examples. It’s an interesting read and a thoughtful perspective, but definitely leans on the latter to make its point, which weakens its arguments.

Maybe it’s just me, but I also found the narrator’s tone a bit...pedantic? Not a huge deal, but it clashes somewhat with the authors’ relatively humble and practical message.

Not What I Expected

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I thought this was a great listen! A true breath of fresh air in a world full of messages that tell me everything is going downhill. This flips it all on its head and says we can totally do this and the outcome will be better than you can imagine. Inspiring and well worth your time

This speaks to the hopes I hold for the future.

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McDonough and Braungart lay out a good case for designing products so that everything can be reused once the product is beyond its useful life. Moreover, they are big fans of upcycling rather than downcycling, which they explain well. Narration is solid.

a step ahead

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This is one of the best books I ve read, though it provides tons of details it is very easy to understand. Sustainability is now the future and the only way. Here you learn to breakdown the cycles from scratch and understand all and that is the part that wows me . I could read it again easily. Plus is enjoyable and provides so much insight in many aspects of life.

Im still amazed

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