Many of you will have read Michael Braungart's notoriously heavy book Cradle to Cradle. Last night Michael spoke at Voices from the Edge on his ideas around materials and products and the need for a new way of thinking about our place within the nutrient cycles of the planet. Braungart tells a good story. His tirade against toxic toys and poisonous products is peppered with humour and absurdly funny but desperately serious commentary on our chemical folly. The key to his arguement is sound - if we are to thrive we must stop thinking of ways to be less bad and start thinking of ways to be good. We must feed the systems that feed us. He argues that to be merely 'sustainable' is not aspirational. That (eco) efficiency is not the right objective (who after all wants to have an 'efficient' dinner or enjoy 'efficient' sex? there is no joy in 'efficiency'). We need to eliminate waste as a concept and we must find ways to be truly proud of what we do. How much more fun can we have designing, making and using products that can be thrown away to feed the soil and fertilize the garden?

CATEGORY: SUSTAINABILITY