Before you simply scroll down and gasp at the length of this post, I implore you to consider something. You could pass over this short novel in favor of commenting on shorter post. Of course, it is much easier for you to summarize and say yes or no to a short post. However, I hope you will read at least part of my writing here. The first half deals with an amazing company and the surprising work they have done that questions the laws of business and our preconceptions about possibility. The second portion deals with some course concepts we have covered. I know you will take something away from this post, so I hope you invest just five minutes in this article. You could do it during the TV commercials or while you are checking your facebook. If you manage to make it to the end and find something interesting enough to comment on, I promise I will return the favor. (Be sure to include your team's title in your signature. Also, please try to comment before midnight on the due date so that I can actually read your posts!)
This Dynamic Duo is a fascinating partnership. McDonough is an American architect who has extensive experience in the realm of sustainability. He started redesigning buildings for several clients and founded his own company. When met Michael Braungart, the direction of his work would soon change and he started to make a significant impact on the world. Michael is a German chemist who was an activist for a movement called Greenpeace. They now work together to bring innovation and the environment together in architecture. Together, they founded McDonough Braungart design Chemistry (MBDC). As with most of the leaders that I have written about, I cannot do these two brilliant men justice in a single blog post. Since the semester is winding down, I will only touch on a couple of their key concepts and direct you to a couple information-rich locations to learn more about them at your own discretion.
The environment is at the center of MBDC’s work. One concept that they struggled with early on was eco-efficiency. Since the time of Henry Ford, efficiency has always been the name of the game as it relates to the environment. Companies need to squeeze more utility out of every resource, worker, and hour. Eco-efficiency aims to release less toxic waste into the environment, create fewer dangerous waste materials, and bury less garbage in the ground. The world has operated on these principles for many years, until McDonough and Braungart came along. They argue that eco-efficiency is not enough. It is not a long term solution to a serious problem. Instead, they proposed a model of eco-effectiveness. In this system, we do not focus on reducing waste. MBDC suggests that we completely eliminate the concept of waste.
To move towards eco-effectiveness, MBDC introduced the simple yet powerful equation: Waste = Food. When left untouched, nature recycles everything. When something dies, it is reabsorbed back into the system as nutrients for something else. Whether a predator catches its prey or a tree falls in the forest, everything becomes an input in the system. MBDC thought that the best model for creating products and buildings is the tree. A tree creates and sustains life for everything around it. And once it dies, it nourishes its environment so that the process can be repeated. MBDC transferred this cycle into our world. Braungart uses the terms biological and technical nutrients. Biological nutrients are raw materials used by other living organisms to carry on life processes. This includes food waste and other materials that could be broken down by the environment somehow. Technical nutrients are materials that humans create which can be continuously put back into production. This is where recycling and upcycling occurs (Upcycling is the practice of recycling materials in a way that it maintains and/or accrues value over time, as opposed to downcycling).
By putting nature’s ways into practice, we can ensure that an endless cycle of sustainable production is created. McDonough and Braungart are famous for their “Cradle to Cradle” model. In this model, materials are cycled continuously through two separate cycles. All technical nutrients will be put back into production to create new products and all biological nutrients will be processed so that the environment is benefited.
To many, this sounds far-fetched and unrealistic. In fact I was one of them. I am a strong believer in capitalism and the corporate structures. However, after taking MQM 385 with Fitzgibbons, my eyes have been opened to a whole new world. I now know that these practices are not only good for the environment, but they are also good for business. And for those who still need convincing, there is a plethora of evidence out there. As for MBDC and their outlandish claims, they have actually achieved this level of success on a number of occasions.
The Rouge River Ford Motor Company complex was renovated under the watchful eye of McDonough. This is an excerpt from the plant’s website: “The Ford Rouge Factory Tour is among 2100 new structures that have won the coveted award since 2000. From the tour’s observation deck, you can see the 10.4-acre “living roof”. It’s actually tens of thousands of tiny sedum plants that decrease energy consumption by 7 percent and improve air quality by as much as 40 percent. The roof is also a central component of an $18 million rainwater treatment system capable of cleaning up to 20 billion gallons of water every year. And scores of energy-efficient skylights and light monitors permit the plant to provide full illumination while shutting off as much as 50 percent of its artificial illumination. And the roof is only one of many elements in an elaborate industrial eco-system that is architecturally inspired as much as it is technologically ahead of its time.”
This roof helps Ford save around $50 million every year. MBDC has used this same concept to help people in China. As you know, over population is a serious problem in some parts of China. The Chinese government asked MBDC to help address the problem of insufficient room for housing and farming. The solution: MBDC designed entire cities that built sustainable houses that required little energy to operate. In addition to eco-friendly materials and technology, they also were able to build mini rice farms on the rooftops of these houses. This allowed people to both live in and plant on the same exact location.
The concepts and ideas I have described above are the things that McDonough and Braungart believe will transform the future. Just as technological and manufacturing breakthroughs in the past altered the course of history, so too will this new change in ideology. This is the New Industrial Revolution that MBDC has brought about.
There are many more success stories I want to get to, but I’m sure you’re tired of reading my post by this point. Unfortunately, I need to stop telling you about what they do and start telling you about what they do. Translation: less stories and more course concepts.
Clearly, McDonough and Braungart are visionaries. One of the most recent concepts we covered involved decision making. These men have made outstanding strategic decisions. They have challenged the “business as we know it” model and created an entirely new way of doing things. By thinking outside the box, they have significantly impacted others in the business community. Manufacturers from all over the world are changing their processes and practices after working with these inspirational leaders. These strategic decisions were coupled with tactical and, surprisingly, operational decisions as well. While McDonough brings several strategic ideas to the table, Braungart brings the ideas to life. His expertise in chemistry and biology help get the ideas from the drawing board to real life. In this aspect, he is displaying his roles as both a contributor and a completer. They are not interested in only creating lofty hypothetical ideals. But rather, they want to bring their concepts to life by actually creating innovative solutions.
This line of communication also leads us to my next point. MBDC obviously makes creative decisions. The three main factors in the creative decision making process are fluency, flexibility, and originality. Fluency refers to the number of ideas a person is able to generate. Although I have not provided enough examples here, they have created several ideas. You don’t have to take my word for it. You can search for the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies or their work with Nike, Nestle, Pepsi, Volvo or any of the 104 clients listed on MBDC’s client list page.
McDonough and Braungart also have amazing flexibility. They are not a “cookie cutter” company that uses the same tactics in every situation. The consulting group analyzes every individual client as a separate opportunity with different possibilities. They have helped countless clients address a wide variety of issues ranging from solar, wind, and hydroelectric power sources to water treatment, living roof, and negative emissions building solutions (negative emissions refers to a practice that purifies the facility’s water and emissions, as well as its immediate environment. This actually creates negative emissions because it creates no waste and purifies surrounding waste.).
MBDC’s Originality cannot be questioned. Each of the ideas they come up with is entirely unique compared to the traditional business model. They have conceived and actually built things that many of us have never even dreamed of. Plants and gardens growing on the roof, negative emissions, complete energy sustainability? This is the reality that MBDC has created.
Congratulations to those who managed to survive until the end! I hope it was worth your time. I apologize again for the ridiculous length of this post and I promise I will never make one like it again. I just feel very passionate about the things that these amazing people have developed and wanted to share some of their work with you. If you are interested in learning more about MBDC or its founders, I encourage you to explore the following links. One is an article that introduces McDonough and Braungart’s groundbreaking beliefs. Another link is a Youtube video. It is Part 1 of a series of interviews with the founders of MBDC. You can cycle through them as you wish, or simply Google MBDC or either one of the founders. I also included a list of their clients to reinforce my claim concerning MBDC's fluency issues. William McDonough and Michael Braungart are amazing leaders who have shown an exceptional level of creativeness, expertise, and passion to change the world by questioning the traditional business model and pushing the boundaries of possibility.
MBDC key concepts:
http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/98oct/industry.htm
Interviews with the founders:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkoOnJmVB6Q
Client list:
http://www.mbdc.com/clientlist.aspx?linkid=4&sublink=14
Regards,
Jarek Palmer
(Big Bang Bloggers)
McDonough and Braungart were two very creative thinking men. As mentioned in our text, the creative decision model can be used to make important decisions in an organization or to help mankind in the community. McDonough and Braungart used this model to think through and develop their solutions to economic problems in society. They went through the five steps: problem recognition, immersion, incubation, illumination, and verification and application. These two men used their abilities in a way to help others live in a better green friendly environment. Just think if everyone used their abilities to the fullest how different our world could be become for the better. These men are role models that everyone should follow if they want to make the environment more economically “green”.
ReplyDeleteMitchell Terry-
In my opinion this is the highest quality and most influential blog post that you have wrote so far Jarek. I made it all the way to the end of your post, after thinking I would only read the first couple paragraphs, as I strongly believe that McDonough and Braungart have taken the concept of corporate social responsibility to a whole new level. Their environmental responsibility is unmatched in comparison to other recent leaders of societal and organizational change, which we have discussed in this blog. Each of their backgrounds fit perfectly into the requirements needed to promote influential environment responsibility for organizations. The implementation of a “living roof” on The Ford Rouge Factory to decrease energy consumption by 7% and improve air quality by 40% is absolutely mind blowing; as well as the water treatment system which is capable of treating 20 billion gallons of water each year. With green energy being the hot topic these days I strongly believe that there will be a shift in the creation of more organizations similar to style of McDonough and Braungart. These two pioneers may have essentially created a new industry in promoting business operations which are similar to the natural environment that surrounds us. McDonough and Braungart will only attract more shared visionaries into their industry with their ability to think of creative decisions related to their fluency, flexibility, and originality. I have been inspired by this blog post, as I wish to learn more of McDonough and Braungart’s creative vision of shifting the future traditional business model. These inspirational leaders of change may lead to way for organizations to promote zero emissions programs, and demonstrate responsibility for world health as virtually anything is possible with their creative genius in environmental sustainability.
ReplyDelete-Zach Seibel
It is astonishing to read about some of the great ideas Mcdonough and Braungart have had regarding issues of sustainability. I do really have a hard time grasping the realisticness of their "eco-effectiveness" concept. While I do understand that it sounds like a brilliant idea on paper, I feel that to actually implement this on a large scale would be near impossible. However, with the success that some of their other projects they have consulted for have had I do not doubt the potential behind this concept. For example, I was shocked to read that the eco-friendly roof they installed for Ford Motor Company helps Ford save over $50 million every year.
ReplyDeleteThe way that these men are able to come up with eco-friendly ideas regarding all aspects of environmental friendly concepts is astonishing. They do not concentrate on one area of sustainability, but rather consult companies on the basis of solar, wind, hyrdroelectric and other green solutions. I think that it would probably be a good idea for McDonough and Braungart to seek a position with sustainability in the government. Since they have truly proved to be leaders of the pack in regards to sustainability I feel that their ideas could potentially be very effective on a much larger country-wide scale.
Many companies could reap large benefits from hiring these to men to help them with their own sustainability efforts in their organizations. With the prior success that these partners have had in the "green" world it could help improve companies marketing campaigns, as well as help organizations save millions of dollars in profits
Jason Dangles