Bill McDonough

On Being Timelessly Mindful in Designing Our Carbon Neutral, Zero Waste, Pollution Free, Healthy, Happy Future World

Bill McDonough

CEO of McDonough Innovation, Co-author on Cradle-Cradle

 

How do we move from a take-make-waste-single use consumer based society to one that designs clean, healthy products, whose elemental parts can be recovered and recycled back into a biological nutrient or a raw material to re-purposed for infinite use? How do we create a new refined lexicon for carbon-differentiating among fugitive, durable, and living carbon to drive correct and specific behavior toward true carbon neutrality in the world? How do we invoke a system’s thinking approach: to halting future production of toxic materials, to shutting down linear systems that continue to pollute our natural world on land and in the oceans, to engaging in effective regenerative activities that are going to help ecosystems heal?How do we inspire a mind shift from unconscious consumption to deeply considerate mindful use and infinite reuse of goods to fulfill a service? How do we lean into higher order questions about our lives, our world, and our impact on the world; now aware that we can— as a species, design the future for greater life in perpetuity or degrade our environments on a planetary scale for a darker days ahead? In my interview with Bill McDonough, he gives cogent answers to these questions and clear direction of travel for every one of us in our global society toward a carbon neutral, clean, healthy, circular world. It's time to ask higher order questions and to be mindful of our actions and lifestyle choices.