William McDonough interview
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 more than 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.
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We want to design buildings that, like trees, convert solar energy, putting more energy back into the grid than they consume. We want to create factories that produce effluents you can safely drink. We foresee products that, when their useful life is over, do not become useless waste. They can be tossed to the ground to decompose into food for plants and animals - nutrients for the soil - or alternatively can be returned to industrial cycles to supply high-quality raw materials for new products. I see a world of abundance, not limits. Design a product in an ecologically intelligent way and you can use as many of them as you want.
