Mcdonough: The Norm During The Industrial Revolution

McDonough explains how this primitive view, considered the norm during the Industrial Revolution, is still seen as the driving force in modern day production. However, I don’t exactly agree with McDonough’s bold claims. While for some companies this idea may still be relevant, others have followed different business models. With the public demand for environment accountability, companies are inclined to be more responsible for increasing the public’s perception. While such responsibility may increase costs, the benefit of avoiding the loss of potential consumers clearly outweighs that cost. Though this idea may force companies to act in an environmentally friendly way, it doesn’t mean they will reject McDonough’s assertion on the common Western
view. Therefore, we must not rely on companies to do the right thing; we must provide economic incentives to make it economically irresponsible to not do the right thing, environmentally.
I found the concepts of cradle to cradle to be interesting. The common practice of creating products which will end up in landfills is an extremely wasteful act. Unfortunately, this is the production plan for majority of the products sold in US. The authors often refer to the expression “there is no away”. This means that a product does not actually get thrown “away”. Once thrown away, the product will end up in a landfill, and thus take up space. However, the cradle to cradle option which is proposed in this reading has a different outcome. Instead of placing products in landfills, during the production process, items are designed to be reusable after the first use. As a society we would produce less waste. I strongly believe that simple ideas like these can go a long way in reducing the ecological footprint we have on the Earth. As a society we must learn to co-exist with our surroundings, not try to control them.