One of the most compelling books that I have read in the last several years is Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by authors William McDonough & Michael Braungart.  Guided by the principle that waste equals food, McDonough, an architect, and Braungart, a chemist, explain how products can be designed from the outset so that, after their useful lives, they will provide nourishment for something new.

Using a cherry tree as an example, they note how “wasteful” it is.  Each year it dumps a great pile of fruit and leaves on the ground to rot.  But all of this waste goes back into nature to be reborn as new trees, bacteria, and other parts of the natural ecosystem.  According to the authors, we should try to emulate this natural system instead of replicating the “cradle to grave” model that has been so popular since the onset of the Industrial Revolution.

The following video, which I highly encourage you take the time to watch, has William McDonough asking what our buildings and products would look like if designers took into account “all children, all species, for all time.” 
 

It is nice to know that there are forward thinking companies that have already instituted the cradle to cradle design philosophy.  Take a look at these beautiful pillows from LoooLo Textiles.

Every pillow or blanket  the company makes uses hand and machine knit biodegradable textiles.  You can even throw them in your composter at the end of their useful lives and they will biodegrade within one year.  That is truly eco-friendly!

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~ Lorrie

Tags: eco-friendly, My Favorite Things, pillows

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 at 10:26 am and is filed under My Favorite Things, eco-friendly, pillows. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.