Recently, cradle-to-cradle design has been a concept discussed for implementation on a city level. William McDonough is behind this new type that is pretty much a way of designing products, businesses and now cities to work in perfect cycles that leave virtually no waste behind. It views everything as nutrients, whether it is a technical nutrient or a biological nutrient, and promotes durable products that can be continuously recycled, similar to the biogeochemical cycles on earth.
A city based on cradle-to-cradle would be:
· Designed to ensure all homes get natural sunlight at some point of the day (reduces energy requires, allows for in home gardens, etc)
· Designed to ensure wind patterns allow all homes get fresh clean air (reduces illnesses)
· Designed for mixed use (promotes mobility, reduced transportation costs/emissions, boosts local economy, etc)
· Designed so that everyone is within a 5 minute walk of transportation hubs (reduces dependence on motor vehicles, promotes cleaner air, cleaner city in general, etc)
· Has a 24 hour street to ensure there is always somewhere for people to be/go (helps reduce crime)
· Wastewater is used to produce biogas to provide natural gas for cooking (treats what is considered now to be a waste product as an important source of energy)
· Wastewater is also used to produce fertilizer (biosolids, which are now a waste product are used to grow food and then become a commodity)
· Constructed wetlands all around the city to allow natural water filtration and ecosystem biodiversity (natural water filtration allows for reduction in chemical dependence, helps ecosystems)
· All roofs are farms! Bridges connect rooftops to allow for the farmers to easily move from field to field (ensures that all space available is used productively and can produce something useful, no space is wasted)
· Solar power will be generated on the roofs of all the industrial buildings and will be used to power the city (reduces dependence on fossil fuels)
All of these measures would cause cities to improve their sustainability greatly. Cities are pretty much the opposite of this now. More concrete than nature, huge amounts of garbage, too many cars, etc. McDonough is really putting ideas out there that will change the way cities are designed in a huge way.
All information was from William McDonough’s TED talk which can be found at this link: http://www.ted.com/talks/william_mcdonough_on_cradle_to_cradle_design.html
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