Cradle to Cradle Design

Just read an introduction about a book "Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things", a 2002 book by German chemist Michael Braungart and U.S. architect William McDonough. I like this sentence "Next Industrial Revolution: 新的工業系統必須謙卑的向大自然學習，在大自然裡，根本沒有廢棄物這個概念──所有東西基本上都是養料，都可以回歸土壤。" in the article 下一波工業革命――《從搖籃到搖籃：綠色經濟的設計提案》。

Cradle to Cradle Design (sometimes abbreviated to C2C or in some circles referred to as regenerative) is a biomimetic approach to the design of systems. It models human industry on nature's processes in which materials are viewed as nutrients circulating in healthy, safe metabolisms. It suggests that industry must protect and enrich ecosystems and nature's biological metabolism while also maintaining safe, productive technical metabolism for the high-quality use and circulation of organic and synthetic materials. Put simply, it is a holistic economic, industrial and social framework that seeks to create systems that are not just efficient but essentially waste free.

In the Cradle to Cradle model, all materials used in industrial or commercial processes—such as metals, fibers, dyes--are seen to fall into one of two categories: "technical" or "biological" nutrients. Technical nutrients are strictly limited to non-toxic, non-harmful synthetic materials that have no negative effects on the natural environment; they can be used in continuous cycles as the same product without losing their integrity or quality. In this manner these materials can be used over and over again instead of being "downcycled" into lesser products, ultimately becoming waste. Biological Nutrients are organic materials that, once used, can be disposed of in any natural environment and decompose into the soil, providing food for small life forms without affecting the natural environment.