Cradle to Cradle

I'm currently reading Cradle to Cradle, remaking the way we make things, by William McDonough and Michael Braungart. So far it's a great book. They are proposing that the life cycle of the products we use, adopt a cycle that is more like the one that nature uses. A tree draws nutrients from the soil to feed it's self, produces fruit to feed animals, and it's waste (dead leaves and eventually the tree it's self) decompose to become nutrients again.

They are dreaming of an exciting world.

We would like to suggest a new design assignment. Instead of fine-tuning the existing destructive framework, why don't people and industries set out to create the following:

• buildings that, like trees, produce more energy than they consume and purify their own waste water
• Factories that produce effluents that are drinking water
• Products that, when their useful life is over, do not become useless waste but can be tossed into the ground to decompose and become food for plants and animals and nutrients for soil; or, alternately, that can return to industrial cycles to supply high-quality raw materials for new products
• billions, even trillions of dollars' worth of materials accrued for human and natural purposed each year.
  
• transportation that improves the quality of life while delivering goods and services
• a world of abundance, not one of limits, pollution and waste

Sounds like a nice place top live.