[Video Link for Email/Other Subscribers - 60min]
Good ‘ole Bill lays down his thoughts on sustainable design from the regenerative school of thought in this one hour lecture. While I’m quite familiar with it, I thought I’d share it with you here since it’s a very inspirational philosophy and view of the world that “can be” - aligned with nature’s closed-loop systems where waste is equal to food. Although quite alluring, at times the ideas therein can appear lofty, utopian, and impractical precisely because they address systems design at a macro level (although solutions can address the micro as well). What I think you’ll enjoy though beyond the various examples and inspirational visions he portrays in his slides and stories (as is the case with most of his talks you’ll find on the web), is his deep philosophical dive into eco-effectiveness (cradle to cradle) versus eco-efficiency.
At the heart of that juxtaposition is the debate over incrementalism versus radical re-design. The right approach to use will always depend on the context though. Bill frames the argument as choosing to be “less bad” versus becoming neutral or positive. That can particularly be the case when toxicity is an element of the design situation.
Nonetheless, the principles of regenerative design and closed-loop systems are an essential framework to sustainability - so I hope you’ll take away something not only thought-provoking, but also from which you can draw upon in a critical analysis.
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