The world will not evolve past its current state of crisis by using the same thinking that created the situation.  – Albert Einstein

This book was not a tree, describes Cradle to Cradle, a book made of synthetic “paper”.  Not made from wood pulp or cotton fiber, it is made of recycled plastic resins and inorganic fillers.  This material is waterproof, durable and recyclable.  This book was printed as a prototype of this technology.

Glance at the sun.  See the moon and the stars.  Gaze at the beauty of earth’s greening.  Now, think. – Hildegard Von Bingen

Cradle to Cradle is about sustainability.  It proposes creating a system of product development where after a product’s useful lifetime its constituent components are recycled into something new.  This system is modeled after nature’s approach where every form of life eventually becomes food for another form of life.  Life flows from ashes to ashes, the cradle to cradle.

What you people call your natural resources our people call our relatives.  – Oren Lyons, faith keeper of the Onondaga

The Yanomamo of Brazil, cremate their dead and put their ashes into a banana soup that the tribe eats in a celebratory feast.  This religious ceremony symbolically represent’s Cradle to Cradle‘s concept of nutrient flows.  Modern man must learn to create the products that we have all come to know and love in a manner that is sustainable.  Cradle to Cradle advocates adopting nature’s own blueprint.

Cradle to Cradle is being used in Anne’s high school.  Anne brought a copy home to share with me for this post.   Cradle to Cradle was written by William McDonough and Michael Braungart.  It is published by North Point Press.  The quotes in this post come from the face sheet of Cradle to Cradle.