Mer än ett decennium har förflutit sedan Cradle to Cradle kom ut, den bok som är en av de stora influensera till de cirkulära idéer som nu börjat synas i debatten. Nu kommer den efterlängtade uppföljaren, The Upcycle.
Budskapet i Cradle to Cradle – Remaking the Way We Make Things från 2002, kan kanske enklast sammanfattas i idén om att det i det vi kallar naturen inte finns några problem med avfall eller farliga utsläpp. Alla material som ingår i organismer återgår till jorden, utan att göra skada. Naturen har inget designproblem – men det har vi människor.
Det har en tid ryktats om en uppföljare till Cradle to Cradle – och nu har författarna William McDonough och Michael Braungart gått ut officiellt med att The Upcycle, som den nya boken heter, utkommer den 16 april. Undertiteln Beyond Sustainability – Designing for Abundance syftar på att det designproblem vi människor har måste lösas genom att vi designar så som naturen gör, med utgångspunkt från att överflöd är något positivt.
I ett utskick till sin maillista ikväll skriver William McDonough följande:
”I am pleased to announce that my new book, The Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability—Designing for Abundance, which I wrote with Michael Braungart, will be published next month. Four years in the making, the book re-joins the conversation sparked by Cradle to Cradle in 2002, one which, I am grateful to say, is as lively and meaningful as ever.
Cradle to Cradle is a foundation, a fulcrum against which we can lean levers of desirable change. The Upcycle is a collection of stories about amplifying, scaling up and accelerating change, about discovering those leverage points where innovation tips the world not just toward sustainability but beyond. We believe upcycling the quality of our design—seeking purposeful, continuous improvement instead of simply recycling yesterday’s sub-optimal or obsolete ideas—is the force that will raise up a more just, prosperous, fruitful world.
President Bill Clinton has done us the great honor of writing a foreword to the book. Here’s an excerpt—
“The Upcycle is a book about creativity, about thinking big even if we have to act small, and about approaching problems with a bias for action… Bill McDonough and Michael Braungart invite you to think about the future we share; to imagine what could be and how to make it so. We are all in this together, and we’ll need a global commitment to sustainability if we want our children to inherit a world of shared opportunity, shared responsibility, and shared prosperity. Let’s get to work.”
Yes, let’s. We are living in a moment of reckoning and extraordinary opportunity, a calamitous time when many businesses are seeking new ways to apply their considerable energy and resources to meeting the world’s needs. Agile, responsive businesses, those able to upcycle everything they do, will create more value for more people. They will prosper, and so will the places and people sharing their beneficial presence. Generosity, abundance and the good health of our world will define success.
Please join us on this journey. Let’s upcycle everything.”
Jag ser väldigt mycket fram emot att få skriva mer om The Upcycle här under våren.