ARC 599 Class Notes 09.15.11

09.15.11
Topics From Class

Guest Lecturer:
Josh A.
H.B.E.E.R. (House Boat to Energy Efficient Residences)

- Energy Strategy:  Aesthetics, Functionality, Performance -
  #'s ($) to materials:  $1.00/day.  Components' durability -
  human thermal comfort.
- "Details For Passive Houses" book.  (German hemp
   fiber, lambs wool, rock wool).
- European Construction Materials:  latent load in summer:
  remove moisture from the air. 

- Mini-Slit-System:  no ductwork, steadier temperature.
- Building Envelope Components:  poly-iso, EPS, HD
  fiberglass, blown-in cellulose, BATT insulation.
  Spray foam insulation is "over-rated."

- Concept:  Martin Franks, Spencer Dohrman.
  Joe Tanney:  Module - aesthetic
  Pod & Panel -  Modular vs. ALL S.I.P.S.
  Pre-Fab utility core - floor plan flexibility.

- Fisher S.I.PS., Louisville, KY.:  $5.00/sq. ft.
  Wood frame (ceiling, roof, floor), hybrid -
  envelope design, no single system for air barrier.
- Must construct an air-tight wall detail to get a
  "real" R-value.
- Each module is self-supporting structurally:
  NOT faster to build - $115,000 construction cost
  (Stardust, the boat builders) - 50 - 75% higher
  construction cost over conventional construction
  using the S.I.P.S. hybrid method.

- Kentucky Highlands market studies, federal
  incentives, surplus of existing housing.

- Folding truss system allowed for a "cathedraled"
  ceiling.  20 hour estimate to install the trusses
  ended up taking 160 hours.

- Air barrier system:  OSR or plywood - glue-tape
  the seams.  Vapor retarders.
- HVAC:  internal loads vs. external loads.

- Residential:  Relying on infiltration for fresh air, loose
  control of the "equation."

- Universal Force Design:  truss design

- Passive House Design Software:  simulation software

- ASHRAE Handbook:  reference for material heat gain
  and loss.
- IECC:  International Energy Conservation Code
- Zip system sheathing.
- Many design professionals do NOT know how to
  detail air-barrier systems.
- (9) air-changes/hour required for a standard
  residential house.
- Home performance:  Energy Star.
- LED lighting used at HBEER.




  HBEER Vendors/Manufactures:

- Fisher SIPS:  Louisville, KY.
- Casteel Woodworking:  London, KY (casework,
  maple plywoods, solid maple fronts.)
- Monticello Hardwoods:  Monticello,KY  (flooring).
- Pella Imperial Windows:  Murray, KY
- GE appliances.
- Renew Air - ERV:  EV70 (indoor unit).
- Fujitsu ductless mini-split:  carrier, condenser, evaporator - 
  high density heat transfer tube arrangement - steady flow
  of air helps maintain a constant temperature.

- Blown-in HD fiberglass insulation.
- Hunter NB (poly-iso):  H-shield NB on wood deck -
  used at cathedral ceiling.
- DOW:  foil faced poly-iso, closed cell foam.
- CAER/ASHRAE:  70 cfm/minute of air must circulate -
  residential code requirement.

Lexington, KY recycling center LFUCG 9.22.11 (Notes and photos from facility tour)

ARC 599 Class Notes 09.22.11

09.22.11
Field Trip to the LUFCG Recycling Center:
360 Thompson Road.
Lexington, KY 40508


- Esther Moberly:  Waste Management Program Specialist.

  LFUCG Plant tour:
- Landfill waste transfer station (outside of
  Lexington).  
- M&M charges residents $7.00.month to recycle,
  then the LFUCG RC pays them AGAIN!
- Residential property tax covers waste.
- Herbie (garbage), Rosie (recycling), Lenny (yard waste).
- New Program:  Certain neighborhoods put food in their
  Lenny for recycling - food waste - Grubby (compost
  bin in yard.) 
- Yard - composting facility near Clark County -
  becomes mulch (4) times annually - free mulch
  given out to the community.


- $3.5 million in new equipment at the LFUCG in
  2009.  Can now accept glass with everything else,
  (single stream.)
- Plastic bottles:  water, juice, soda, milk, detergent,
  bleach.
- Gas:  trucking materials around.


- Material through the facility:  20,000 tons in
  2009 = $1.6 million in revenue.  25,000 tons in
  2010 = $2.4 million in revenue.  


- Other recycling companies in the area :
  Central Kentucky Fiber Resources, LLC,
  Goodwill, Wise Recycling (metal), e-Waste
  Recycling company on Versailles Road.


- Glass is sent to Atlanta, GA.
- Plastic bottles sent to Atlanta, GA to multiple
  carpet companies.
- Croix, Alabama - soup cans recycled for steel.
- Novelis:  World's largest aluminum can recycler:
  Berea, Kentucky.
  http://www.novelis.com/en-us/Pages/home.aspx

- Phone books - used for building insulation?
- Plastic bags:  stock pile/bale until enough accumulates
  to make it worth shipping.

- U.S. corporate chain stores with recycling programs:
  Walmart, Lowe's, Home Depot, Kroger.

- LFUCG looking to expand to have commercial
  and residential recycling capability.


- Toyota is asking suppliers to use alternatives to wood
  pallets.

- Lexington's landfill is for construction and demolition
  debris only - LFUCG is implementing a construction
  material recycling center.

- CSTS:  Convenience Center Transfer Station.
- Goodwill's unusable clothes used as building
  insulation?  Currently they send clothes to a company
  that makes mechanic's rags.

- Toyota:  seat covers/car upholstery recycled. 

- "Film": plastic wraps, bags, sheeting, potato chip bags,
  shower curtains.

ARC 599 Class Notes 09.08.11

09.08.11
Topics from Class:
Guest Lecturer:
Barry Prater
Central Kentucky Fiber Resources
http://www.centralkyfiber.com/

- 'Toy Story 3':  Toys discarded
- The 'Quo Family' - the status quo
- 'To Infinity and Beyond:  Architecture and Building
   Using Conscious Design'   
- BHFR & Cellmark: 
   http://www.bgpride.org/documents/2bWasteReduction-BarryPrater.pdf          

- Stewardship, footprints, environmentalist vs.
  environmental stewardship         
- 'The WALK':  Water Air Land Kreatures
  (or Kritters !)
- The Great Lexington Sign-Off (too many unnecessary signs)
- Gray Water Reclamation:  (Health Dept., health concerns)
- Economy = Ecology
- Pre-cycling

- Barry's definition of Sustainability:  Planning for the proper

  process of preventing pollution by identifying the best method

  for returning products and packaging to reusable fiber prior 

  to purchase.   

- Horticultural plastics (house plant packaging):  Lowe's sends
  their used plastic packaging to CKFR
- Colorpoint:  (13) acres of greenhouse in Paris, KY:
   http://www.colorpoint.biz/Colorpoint   
- HDPE Plastics:  Germany:
  http://plasticpipe.org/pdf/chapter-1_history_physical_chemistry_hdpe.pdf 
- Reason NOT vs. Reasons TO Recycle:  2004 #'s for the
  U.S. (see Barry's report pdf:   BHFR
  & Cellmark above.)
- Germany's recycling rate MUCH higher than the U.S.
- Japan:  77% Incineration of waste
- Volume, Contamination, Market/Use:  Categorize, Collect,
  Combine:
   Checklist:  wood, plastic, glass, metal, rubber, other
- Paper pulp rubber (clean, natural, or colored), nylon, pvc,
  tpo, ferrous/non-ferrous metals
- Resin I.D. Code:  HDPE 
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_recycling
- (7) Resins in plastics:  blow molded, injection molded

  Central Kentucky Fiber Resources (products and 
  processes):

- Baled, gaylorded, banded, palletized > delivered to the
  market
- Lithoplates from industrial printing:  aluminum smelted to
  aluminum ore
- (S4) grades of paper
- Shrink wrap LDPE or biscayne - LLDPE
- P.E.T.E. industrial banding:  honeycomb vs. line
  configuration
- Process waste vs. packaging waste
- Automotive polypropylene

- William Deming 'Out of The Crisis':
   http://books.google.com/books/about/Out_of_the_crisis.html?id=LA15eDlOPgoC

- Municipal:  Steel cans:  bales $80.00/ton ! !
- HDP:  High Density Polyethylene
- Pigmented plastics can't be made 'natural'
- Use the SPECIFIC terms for materials
- Somerset, KY:  Playsmart:  Made of natural (#2) HDPE
- Bulk mail

  Central Kentucky Fiber Resources (Unapproved Materials):

- Mixed paper
- Contaminated OCC (Carbon Black)
- Bi-Fiber (foil, cardboard - silver on the box not recyclable)
- #1 - 7's w/out prior approval - mixed plastics not worth
  sorting (ex. Kentucky Gentleman Whiskey Bottles)

- Scales:  Trucks weighed (- the driver's weight).  250 tons
  of material/day through CKFR
- Conveyer/Baler:  'Tiny' > finished bale
- Cardboard bale = 1500lbs = $165.00/ton
- Paper Mills:  Temple-Inland:
  http://www.templeinland.com/CorrugatedPackaging/Linerboard/recycled.asp 
- Tractor Trailer, ocean bound ships
- Nine Dragon Mill:  Largest paper mill in China:  200,000
  gallons of water = 1 ton of milled paper
- Buffalo Trace Distillary:  http://www.buffalotrace.com/ 
- Goodwill Industries of KY:  Since 1923 creating jobs,
  1,657 people hired to recycle cardboard
- Wayne Co. Recycling (southern shore of Lake Cumberland):  
   http://www.waynecounty.ky.gov/services/sw.htm

- Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control the
  Process
- Sherwin Williams:  140 tons saved from landfill.  Cans
  filled with paint to smelter, paint evaporates  
  (carcinogen?).  Compare to automotive paint on metal.
- Paper = $30.00/$50.00 / ton
- Kentucky Division of Waste Management:  Solid Waste
  Report (copy from Barry)
- Kentucky's landfill rates are cheaper than MOST other
  states, so other states dump their waste here in
  Kentucky 
- Dominican Republic:  Largest landfills in the world with
  villages in them:  'The Fly' and 'The Hole'
- KY County landfills:  316,000 tons of solid waste in 2009
- Dept. of Environmental Protection
- Division of Waste Management
- (4) cubic yards = (1) ton
- Compacted vs. Incinerated
- 1.4 million cubic yards of garbage = +/- (1) city block by
  20 stories.  Compare to Centerpoint, downtown
   Lexington
- Brick and mortar recycling
- C&M Disposal (Lexington, KY) trying to specialize in
  construction disposal:  http://www.cmeky.com/ 
- Dominance of 'stick building' in Kentucky
- Northern Kentucky:  Tub Grinder, grind up the entire
  building > ship the waste to Ohio, Ohio charges by
   the cubic yard.
- Glass:  No place to melt it down in Kentucky (ship to
  Indianapolis or Nashville)
- Kentucky State building code:  Aggregate under rough
  plumbing, why not use glass?
- Lawrenceberg, KY:  Glass facility:  Crushed
  automotive glass into rail cars.  PVB
  (Poly Vinyl Butoline) - see MSDS sheet on materials.
- ISRI Spec. Circular 2006 for the selling and
  purchasing of materials
- Lignin:  The glue of the plant world - chemically
  removed for office paper.

- Plastics: PET -  bottles, re-grind to chips.
  PBT - automotive, contains metal, not recyclable.

  H.B.E.E.R. Potential Suppliers:

- Outdoor Venture:  Military Tents - 10 tons/month
  process waste vinyl.
- Belden, Inc.:  Monticello, KY - wire and cable products.
- Jones Plastic - appliance parts.
- CTA:  Corbin, KY - automotive insulation.
- Woodstock Pallet:  Somerset, KY - wooden pallets, scrap
  pallets - 200 tons/month

- Plastics:  taste, burn test - moisten the material
  for float test.
- Tarter Gate Scrap Wood 200 tons/month:  Dannville, KY
  agricultural equipment.

- Testing of Plastics:  "Pancake" samples.
- Polystyrene (expanded): 48 ft. trailer packed full: 1,000 lbs.
                                        "           "              baled: 6,000 lbs
                                        "           "         densified: 40,000 lbs. 
- Fruit of The Loom:  Russell Springs, KY -
  100 tons/month by-product
- Philips Lighting:  Danville, KY - incandescent light -
  obsolete trays (for bulb shipping) - landfill!
- Single Serve eating in America creates a severe
  over-abundance of packaging.

Notes/quotes/paraphrasing from 'Cradle to Cradle, Remaking the Way We Make Things'

Chapter Five
Respect Diversity:

-  Nature's design framework:  a flowering of diversity,
  a flowering of abundance.  It is Earth's response to 
  its one source of incoming energy:  the sun.  Against
  this is the human "attack of the one-size-fits-all"
  design response:  layers of concrete and asphalt, 
  bland buildings, spaces lush with foliage and wildlife
  shrunk to marginal places, landscapes flattened into
  single-species lawns - this is a de-evolution, a tide
  of sameness.  Against this tide of sameness we 
  advance the principle "respect diversity."


  The Fittest Survive, the Fitting-est Thrive

- Fitting-est implies an energetic and material
  engagement with place, and an interdependent
  relationship to it.   


-  Consider again, ants:  There are more than eight
  thousand different kinds of ants that inhabit the 
  planet.  Ants do not work to destroy competing
  species. 

- The vitality of ecosystems depends on relationships:
  what goes on between species, their uses and 
  exchanges of materials and energy in a given
  place - a tapestry as the metaphor for diversity - 
  diversity means strength, monoculture means
  weakness.  

- Industries that respect diversity engage with local
  material and energy flows, and with local social,
  cultural, and economic forces, instead of viewing
  themselves as autonomous entities, unconnected
  to the culture or landscape around them. 


  All Sustainability Is Local


- From "The Hannover Principles," "Recognize
  interdependence.  The elements of human design
  are entwined with and depend upon the natural
  world, with broad and diverse implications at 
  every scale.  Expand design considerations and
  recognize distant effects." 


- Bill and his professor's long term plan for the future
  of the East Bank of the Jordan River Valley as well
  as strategies for future towns for the Bedouin to 
  settle.  In contrast to the competing team's Soviet - 
  style housing blocks, Bill and his colleagues created
  a proposal to adapt and encourage adobe structures.  
  They tracked down elder craftspeople in the region
  who could show them how to build the structures.  
  They hoped their plan would enhance community
  in several ways: homes were built from local 
  materials that were biologically and technically
  reusable, it would involve local people in building
  the community and keep them connected to the 
  regions cultural heritage as well as foster
  intergenerational connection. 


  Using Local Materials

- Avoid bioinvasion:  Chestnut blight entered on the 
  United States on a piece of lumber from China.

- Physical materials and physical processes have an
  effect on the surrounding environment - invite more
  species into a landscape as opposed to "hack-and-
  -mow practices.


- Sewage treatment plants based on bioremediation
  to replace harsh chemical treatment of sewage -
  Biologist John Todd:  "living machines."


- Developing countries provide opportunities to
  implement new sewage treatment systems that
  make waste equal food.  Michael and his colleagues
  developed a system at Silva Jardin in Rio in 1992
  consisting of an intricate series of small ponds,
  pipes made from local clay, and a diverse array of
  plants, microbes, snails, fish, and shrimp.


- An Indiana community stores its septage in 
  underground tanks through the winter, and in the
  summer the septage is moved to a large outdoor
  garden and constructed wetland, where plants,
  fungi, snails, and other organisms purify and 
  use its nutrients with the power of the sun. 


  Connecting to Natural Energy Flows


- Ralph Waldo Emerson' impressions of riding on a
  steamship and the lack of "Aoelian Kinetic" -
  the force of the wind, and the implications of
  changing these connections between humans 
  and nature. 


- Modern homes, buildings, and factories, even
  whole cities are so closed off from natural 
  energy flows that they are virtual steamships -
  Le Corbusier's house as a machine for living
  in and glorification of steamships, airplanes,
  cars, and grain elevators - compare to the saltbox
  houses of colonial New England (where site
  orientation, trees, fireplaces, and the buildings
  design and form work with the landscape. 
  Aboriginal Australians sticks and bark 
  shelter that adjusts to the sun's position. 


- Modern industrialization and convenience has
  caused a fading of innovative, passive, use of
  local ingenuity. 


  A Transition to Diverse and Renewing Energy Flows


- Ecosystems and economic systems benefit from - 
  diversity, many small players, and a more stable,
  resilient system.


- Intelligent appliances that "choose" from 
  alternate power sources accordingly.


- Tom Kiser of Professional Supply Incorporated - 
  using the natural properties of hot and cold air
  to adjust temperatures "locally" within a 
  building and to use the entire building like
  a large duct. 


  Reap the Wind


- Look to Dutch landscape paintings for
  inspiration on scale, aesthetics and locations of 
 wind turbines.


- Utilities could lease land from farmers who
  get an income, the utility gets power to add 
  back to the grid.


- Team assembled by David Orr of Oberlin College - 
  building and site modeled on the way a tree works - 
  purify air, create shade and habitat, enrich soil,
  and change with the seasons, eventually accruing 
  more energy than it needs to operate - solar panels
  on the roof, a grove of trees on the north side for
  wind protection and diversity, an interior 
  designed to change and adapt to people's aesthetic
  and functional preferences with raised floors and
  leased carpeting, a pond that stores water for
  irrigation, a living machine inside and beside the 
  building that uses a pond full of specially selected
  organisms and plants to clean the effluent, 
  classrooms and large public rooms that face west
  and south to take advantage of solar gain, 
  special windowpanes that control the amount of
  UV light entering the building, a restored forest
  on the east side of the building, and an approach
  to landscaping and grounds maintenance that
  obviates the needs for pesticides or irrigation.


  A Diversity of Needs and Desires


- Soho and TriBeCa neighborhoods - example of
  buildings designed with several enduring 
  advantages - high ceilings and large, high
  windows that let in daylight, thick walls
  that balance daytime heat with night-time
  coolness - attractive and useful design
  has allowed them to go through many cycles
  of use. 


- French jam pots - used for drinking glasses
  once the jam is gone. 


- Chinese Styrofoam packaging problem - 
  packaging could be made from rice stalks
  from the fields after harvest.


  Form Follows Evolution


- "Mass" customization - packaging and products
   adapted to local tastes and traditions.


- Make soap the way ants would - use less water, 
  ship it in dry form with a biodegradable 
  composition.


- People want diversity because it brings them
 more pleasure and delight.


  A Tapestry of Information


- Working with a European soap manufacturer - 
   what kind of soap does the river want?  A long
  process to determine a safe list of chemical 
  ingredients - initial cost of the chemicals was
  higher, but the entire manufacturing process was
  considerably cheaper thanks to simpler 
  preparation and storage requirements. 


  A Diversity of "Isms"


- Adam Smith:  "Every man working for his own
  selfish interest will be led by an invisible hand to
  promote the public good."


- Marx and Engels:  "The Communist Manifesto"


- Taken to extremes - reduction to isms - can neglect
  factors crucial to long term success, such as social
  fairness, the diversity of human culture, the health
 of the environment.


- Visualization tool:  Ecology, Equity, Economy 
  organized as a fractal tile serving as a tool,
  (not a symbol).   


  The Triple Top Line


- Businesses assess their health economically and then
  tack on bonus points for eco-efficiency, reduced 
  accidents or product liabilities, jobs created,
  and philanthropy - they are missing a rich
  opportunity - used as a design tool, the fractal
  allows the designer to create value in all three
  sectors, Ecology, Equity, Economy.  For example,
  a project that begins with Ecology or Equity 
  (How do I create habitat?  How can I create jobs?)
  can turn out to be tremendously productive 
  financially in ways that would never have been
  imagined if you'd started from a purely economic
  perspective. 

  An Industrial Re-Evolution

- Natural systems take from their environment, but
  they also give something back.  We need to follow 
  their cue  to create a more inspiring engagement - 
  a partnership with nature.  We can build factories 
  whose products and by-products nourish the 
  ecosystem with biodegradable material and
  recirculate technical materials instead of dumping, 
  burning, or burying them.








 

Notes/quotes/paraphrasing from 'Cradle to Cradle, Remaking the Way We Make Things'

Chapter Four
Waste Equals Food:

- The Earth's major nutrients - carbon, hydrogen, 
  oxygen, nitrogen - are cycled and recycled.  Waste 
  equals food.

- Industry altered the natural equilibrium of materials 
  on the planet.  Humans took substances from 
  the Earth's crust and concentrated, altered, and
  synthesized them into vast quantities of material
  that cannot safely be returned to the soil - 
  material flows can now be divided into two
  categories:  biological mass and technical,
  (industrial) mass - biological and technical
  nutrients.  Biological nutrients are useful to 
  the biosphere, while technical nutrients are 
  useful for the "technoshpere."

  From Cradle-to-Cradle to Cradle-to-Grave: 
  A Brief History of Nutrient Flows

- Nomadic cultures left their biological wastes behind to
  to replenish the soil.  They truly had an "away."  
  Agricultural communities, as they became increasingly
  adept at food production, saw swelling populations,
  and began to take nutrients from the soil and to eat up
  resources (such as trees) without replacing them at an
  equal rate.  They also began to devise ways to get rid
  of their wastes. 


- William Cronon:  In "Nature's Metropolis", he 
  observes that the rural areas around Chicago were
  organized over time to provide services for the 
  city.  "The central story of the nineteenth-century 
  West is that of an expanding metropolitan economy
  creating ever more elaborate and intimate linkages
  between city and country."  As cities swelled and 
  grew they placed increasing pressure on the 
  environment around them. 

- Certain cultures have understood the value of nutrient
  flows:  Egypt and the Nile River with its rhythmic 
  cycles of overflow and silt deposits.  The Chinese
  perfected a system that prevents pathogens from 
  contaminating the food chain, and fertilized rice
  patties with biological wastes, including sewage. 
  Unfortunately, today, the Chinese and the Egyptians
  have turned to systems based on the Western 
  model and are growing more dependent on
  imported foods. 


- In preindustrial culture, people consumed and
  discarded things, but they were largely 
  biodegradable.  Metals were melted down and 
  reused.  Industrialization and the proliferation
  of cheap materials that it created (with
  exceptions during times of scarcity, the Great
  Depression, WWII) created an ethic where 
  throwaway products are the norm - leading
  eventually to the phenomenon of engineered 
  obsolescence.  


  Monstrous Hybrids

- Beyond the issue of space taken up by landfills, 
  is the issue of the lost nutrients, both technical 
  and biological that are lost forever - the 
  conventional leather shoe: vegetable tanning 
  has been replaced with chromium tanning, 
  which is faster and cheaper.  Chromium is rare
  and valuable for industries.  Combined with 
  rubber shoe soles containing lead and plastics, 
  the product cannot be safely consumed or 
  reused and ends up in a landfill.  


  A Confusion of Flows

- In the late nineteenth century, a connection was 
  made between sanitation and public health.  
  Sewers ran to rivers, which were soon 
  overwhelmed.  Eventually, sewage treatment
  plants were built to treat effluents and sized to
  accommodate waterborne sewage combined with
  added storm water during major rains.  Sewage
  treatment was a process of microbial and bacterial 
  digestion.  Sewage volume continued to increase,
  however, and the solution grew to include harsh
  chemical treatments like chlorination.  This 
  corresponded with multiple household chemicals
  being poured down drains - recent studies have 
  found hormones, endocrine disrupters, and other
  dangerous compounds in bodies of water that 
  receive "treated" sewage effluents.  Sewage sludge
  is even too contaminated to be used for fertilizer - 
  what if we moved back upstream and considered
  all of the things contained in sewage to be 
  nutrient flows?  Phosphate (used as a fertilizer 
  occurs naturally in sewage sludge and other organic 
  wastes but is currently mined out of rocks at 
  great environmental cost. 


  From Cradle to Grave to Cradle to Cradle

- A products "life cycle" - we project our vitality -
  and our mortality - onto our products.  Our sense
  of identity has become dependent on the sense
  of ourselves as powerful, unique individuals 
  consuming and discarding products which we
  alone owned and used. 


  A World of Two Metabolisms

- Overarching design framework within which we
  exist has two essential elements:  mass (the Earth)
  and energy (the sun).  It is a closed loop system.  
  Whatever we make does not go "away."

- Form follows evolution, not just function - two
  discrete metabolisms on the planet - the biological
  metabolism (biosphere) and the technical metabolism
  (technosphere).  Products can be composed either of
  materials that biodegrade and become food for 
  biological cycles, or of technical materials that stay
  in closed-loop technical cycles.   


  The Biological Metabolism

- A biological nutrient is a material or product that
  is designed to return to the biological cycle - it is
  consumed by microorganisms in the soil and by 
  other animals.  Packaging, which makes up about
  50 percent of the municipal solid waste stream 
  can be designed as biological nutrients. 


- DesignTex, a division of Steelcase asked MBDC
  to create a compostable upholstery fabric and 
  suggested cotton fiber combined with PET 
  (polyethylene terephthalate) from recycled 
  soda bottles.  PET, however, is covered with
  synthetic dyes and chemicals and contains 
  questionable substances.  Upholstery abrades,
  so not only would the product fill the air with 
  potentially harmful chemicals, it cannot be 
  safely disposed of at the end of its life. 


- The MBDC team came up with a mixture of safe,
  pesticide-free plant and animal fibers for the fabric:
  wool, which provides insulation in summer and winter,
  and ramie, which wicks away moisture - the goal 
  became to go beyond designing a fabric that would
  do no harm and to design a fabric that would be
  nutritious.  Sixty chemical companies declined the
  invitation to join the project, unwilling to expose
  their chemistry to the level of scrutiny required.  
  Finally, one European company agreed to join. 


  The Technical Metabolism

- A technical nutrient is a material or product that is
  designed to go back into the technical cycle, into 
  the industrial metabolism from which it came - 

  Example:  the average television is made of 
  4,360 chemicals, some are toxic but others are
  valuable nutrients for industry. 


- Industrial mass can be specifically designed to
  retain its high quality for multiple uses - how to 
  make this practical and achievable - a new
  concept:  a product of service.  Customers would
  effectively purchase the service of such a product
  for a defined user period - say, ten thousand hours
  of television viewing, rather than the television 
  itself.  The customers would receive the services for
  as long as they need them and could upgrade as
  often as desired.


- "Rent-a-solvent":  To provide a degreasing service 
  using high quality solvents available to customers
  without selling the solvent itself;  the provider
  would recapture emissions and separate the solvent
  from the grease so that it would be available for 
  continuous reuse.  


- This scenario has tremendous implications for 
  industry's material wealth:  The carpet industry 
  (when a customer wants to replace the carpeting,
  the manufacturer simply removes the top, snaps
  down a fresh one in the desired color, and takes the
  old one back as food for further carpeting), the
  automobile industry, etc.  Industry need not 
  design what it makes to be durable beyond a certain
  amount of time any more than nature does - 
  Threefold benefit:  produce no useless and 
  potentially dangerous waste, save manufacturers
  billions of dollars in materials over time, diminish 
  extraction of raw materials (such as petrochemicals)
  and the manufacture of potentially disruptive 
  materials (such as PVC).

  When Worlds Collide

-  Running shoes:  impact of the shoes releases tiny
  particles containing chemicals that may be 
  teratogens, carcinogens, or other substances that
  can reduce fertility and inhibit the oxidizing 
  properties of cells.  Running shoes can be
  redesigned so that their soles are biological nutrients. 


- Some materials do not fit either the organic or
  the technical metabolism because they contain 
  materials that are hazardous - "unmarketables"
  that require creative measures:  storage in 
  "parking lots", (safe repositories funded by the 
  producer of the material) until they can be 
  detoxified and returned as valuable molecules. 
  Nuclear waste is clearly an unmarketable, 
  PVC, PET, etc. Companies might undertake a
  "waste phaseout" in which unmarketables - 
  - problematic wastes and nutrients - are
  removed from the current waste stream. 

 
   
  

Notes/quotes/paraphrasing from 'Cradle to Cradle, Remaking the Way We Make Things'

Chapter Three
Eco-Effectiveness:

- Design of the "Cradle to Cradle" book:  Paper is 
  biodegradable but ink contains carbon black and 
  heavy metals.  The jacket contains wood pulp,
  polymers, and coatings, as well as inks, heavy
  metals, and halogenated hydrocarbons.  It cannot
  be safely composed or burned.  Compare to the 
  "eco-friendly" book:  beige, recycled paper, soy-
  based inks, thin, un-coated text stock and the 
  absence of a jacket.  Its design suffers and it is 
  not reader-friendly.  It is eco-friendly, or IS IT?
  The paper:  chlorine free paper sounded good, 
  but it requires virgin pulp which would still 
  contain some natural chlorinated salts.  So, 
  chew up forests or pollute rivers?  They chose 
  the latter as the least of evils. The inks:  soy-
  based inks might include halogenated hydrocarbons
  or other toxins.  The cover's fragile paper requires
  coating and so is not recyclable.  The books fibers 
  are not made to last even as long as conventional
  paper.  

-  Re-imagine/replace "paper." Instead of paper, 
  plastics developed around a different paradigm 
  for materials - polymers that are infinitely
  recyclable at the same level of quality.  Nontoxic
  inks can be washed off the polymer with a simple
  and safe chemical process or an extremely hot
  water bath. 

- This book:  Although not the book in the 
  description above, it is a step in that 
  direction, thanks to Charlie Melcher of
  Melcher Media.  Made from a waterproof
  polymer, it does off-gass, but has the potential
  to be "upcycled."  

  Consider the Cherry Tree

- The tree makes copious blossoms and fruit without
  depleting its environment.  Once they fall on the 
  ground, their materials decompose and break
  down into nutrients that nourish microorganisms,
  insects, plants, animals, and soil - what might the
  human-built world look like if a cherry tree had 
  produced it?   

- Imagine a building designed and built by the cherry
  tree:  daylight pours in, views of the outdoors are
  plentiful through large, untinted windows, each of
  the occupants has five views from where they sit, 
  delicious and affordable food and beverages are
  available to employees in a cafe that opens onto a
  sun-filled courtyard.  Each office space has control
  over the flow of fresh air and temperature.  The 
  windows open.  The cooling system maximizes
  natural air flow as in a hacienda:  at night, the
  system flushes the building with cool  evening
  air, bringing the temperature down and clearing 
  the rooms of stale air and toxins.  Native grasses
  cover the roof, attracting songbirds and protecting
  the roof from thermal shock and ultraviolet 
  radiation. 

- See the Herman Miller Factory by McDonough
  + Partners:  Designed the factory around a tree-
  lined interior conceived as a brightly daylit "street"
  that ran the entire length of the building.

  What is Growth?

- Natural growth usually perceived as beautiful and 
  healthy.  Industrial growth called into question by
  environmentalists and other concerned about the 
  rapacious use of resources and the disintegration
  of culture and environment. 

- Consider the Cherry Tree:  It's growth sets in motion
  a number of positive effects. 

- Consider ants:  They are a good example of a 
  population whose density and productiveness are
  not a problem for the rest of the world, because
  everything they make and use returns to the 
  cradle to cradle cycles of nature - compare to a 
  strip mall, (jobs and money circulating through
  the local economy gained through the "cost" of
  increased traffic, asphalt, pollution, and waste), 
  or a textile factory where water may come in
  clean but goes out contaminated with fabric
  dyes, which usually contains toxins such as
  cobalt, zirconium, other heavy metals, and 
  finishing chemicals. 


  Once upon a roof

- Conventional roofing surfaces:   Part of the 
  growing landscape of impervious surfaces 
  contributing to heat gain, re-emission of solar
  energy, and increased water run-off.  Compare to
  a dynamic roof that responds to these issues 
  through its composition of soil and plants.  It
  provides free evaporative cooling in hot weather
  and insulation in cold weather, shelter from the 
 sun's destructive rays.  It makes oxygen, sequesters
 carbon, captures particulates, and absorbs storm
 water.  

  Beyond Control

- Toward a shift in perspective from the old view
  of nature as something to be controlled to a 
  stance of engagement - "Nature being known,
  it may be master'd, managed, and used in the
  services of human life." - Francis Bacon.


- The story of the forbidden cherry tree:  Hannover,
  Germany neighborhood plants a cherry tree as a
  habitat for songbirds and for people who might
  want to eat the cherries.  The legislature viewed 
  the tree as a risk due to it's unpredictability and
  potential liability - a metaphor for a culture of
  control. 


  Becoming a Native

- The notion of colonizing other planets as license
  for destruction of this planet.  Lets use our 
  ingenuity to stay here;  to become , once again,
  native to this planet.   


- The Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin:  Harvesting 
  wood from the forest at a rate at which the forest
  can handle, thus achieving a balance between their 
  need for timber and the needs of the forest.  


- The Yakima Indian Nation, whose traditional lands
  include much of the Hanford Reservation, site for 
  long-term radioactive waste storage.  The Yakima
  were surprised - even - amused at concern over
  their descendant's safety relative to the nuclear
  waste.  Their conception of themselves was not
  historical, but eternal, thus there was no question 
  of whether or not future generations would be 
  alerted to any dangers present in the land. 


  The New Design Assignment

- Instead of fine tuning the existing destructive
  framework, why don't people and industries set out
  to create buildings, factories, products, materials,
  transportation, A WORLD, inspired by the 
  abundance and fecundity of nature and natural
  systems. 
 

Notes/quotes/paraphrasing from 'Cradle to Cradle, Remaking the Way We Make Things'

Chapter Two
"Why Being 'Less Bad' is No Good"

- Vocabulary from the "less bad" approach:  reduce,
  avoid, minimize, sustain, limit, halt.  


- Thomas Malthus:  Late eighteenth century warning 
  that humans would reproduce exponentially with 
  devastating consequences for humankind - from 
  Population:  The First Essay. 1978 in response to
  William Godwin who espoused man's 
  "perfectibility."

-  Literary figures:  English Romantic writers,
  William Wordsworth and William Blake spoke
  out against an increasingly mechanistic and urban
  society.  Americans George Perkins Marsh, 
  Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Aldo Leopold.
  From the Maine woods, Canada, Alaska, the 
  the Midwest, and the Southwest spoke out on 
  behalf of the landscape - some went on to help
  form conservation societies such as the Sierra Club
  and the Wilderness Society, to preserve wilderness
  and keep it untouched by industrial growth.

- Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring", 1962:  The 
  romantic strain of wilderness appreciation merged
  with the scientific:  Carson pointed out 
  environmental offenses at the chemical level -
  human-made chemicals, pesticides, and DDT 
  in particular.

- Paul Elrich's "The Population Bomb", 1968, 
  predicted resource shortages and famine in the 
  1970's and 1980's.  Went on to write 
  "The Population Explosion" with his wife Anne in
  1984.  

- A message to consumers from Robert Lilienfeld 
  and William Rathje's 1998 "Use Less Stuff:
  Environmental Solutions for Who We Really Are".
  Western culture has a devouring impulse 
  comparable to drug or alcohol addiction for 
  which "recycling is an aspirin, alleviating a 
  rather large collective hangover .  .   . 
  overconsumption.


- It wasn't until the mid 1990's that industries 
  themselves began to listen to the growing number of 
  urgent messages and warnings.


- The 1992 Rio Earth Summit concluded with an 
  agreement to refit industry with cleaner, faster, 
  quieter engines.  No agreements were binding,
  unfortunately, but the notion of eco-efficiency
  was born and began to permeate industry as a  
  choice strategy of change. 


- Eco-efficiency:  "doing more with less."


  The Four R's:  Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - and Regulate

- Reduction, although a central tenet of eco-efficiency,
  reduction in toxic waste created or emitted, 
  quantity of raw materials used, or the product
  size itself, serves merely to slow these things down,
  allowing them to take place in smaller increments 
  over a longer period of time.


- Reuse can make industries and customers feel
  that something good is being done for the 
  environment, because piles of waste appear to go
  "away" when often they are simply being 
  transferred to another place. 


- Recycling, in most cases, is really just "downcycling."
  It reduces the quality of a material over time due, 
  in large part, to the fact that most man-made 
  materials were not designed to be reused.  In 
  addition, just because a material has been 
  recycled does not automatically make it
  ecologically benign.  Downcycling can also
  be more expensive for businesses partly 
  because it tries to force materials into more
  lifetimes than they were originally designed for,
  thus expending more energy and resources. 


- Jane Jacobs, "Systems of Survival":  Describes
  two fundamental syndromes of human 
  civilizations:  the "guardian" and "commerce" 
  that, by their very nature, have conflicting
  agendas. Money, the tool of commerce, will
  corrupt the guardian.  Regulation, the tool of
  the guardian, will slow down commerce - 
  businesses will naturally seek to cut costs by
  avoiding regulation however they can, thus 
  giving unregulated and potentially dangerous
  products a competitive advantage.  This also
  fosters " end of pipe" solutions where regulation
  is applied to the waste and polluting streams of 
  a process or system, after the damage is already 
  being done. 


  Efficient - at What?
 
 - Question the general goal of efficiency for a 
   system that is largely destructive - consider energy
   efficient buildings:  building "shells" have 
   become much better insulated, reducing air flow
   flow back and forth between inside and outside 
   and have reduced energy use to maintain climate
   control.  However, this also strengthens the 
   concentration of indoor air pollution from poorly 
   designed materials and products in the home - 
   overly efficient buildings can be dangerous.

    
 - Designing for efficiency can create problems 
   structurally in building design, agriculturally 
   (through the elimination of ecological diversity), 
   and industrially,  through the distribution of 
   pollution in less obvious ways.  


- Efficiency is not much fun:  compare to beauty,
  creativity, fantasy, enjoyment, inspiration, poetry,
  etc.  Efficiency is not ALL bad, it just lacks 
  independent value and should not be pursued
  for its own sake, or purely for financial gain. 


- Instead of presenting an exciting vision of change,
  conventional environmental approaches focus
  on what not to do. The goal is zero:  zero waste,
  zero emissions, zero "ecological footprint."  
  But this is to accept things as they are.  What
  about an entirely different model?  What if we
  replace "be less bad" with "be 100% good?"