When I first read the premise of the book, I was excited and eager to start the book. The ideas were interesting and case studies were compelling...

But all that broke down when I looked up the author (note to self: do this before getting involved with a book). I stumbled upon a FastCompany profile of the author, William McDonough.

This quote from the profile deftly summarizes McDonough's character:

The Oberlin case is part of a larger pattern, some of his former colleagues say. “McDonough doesn’t care if the facts are wrong,” one told me, “because he’s a self-mythologizer. His job in the world is to convince people that a positive future is possible, and it doesn’t help his cause to admit there are hiccups and failures along the way.”

I was at the second to last chapter when I read this profile, and I'm calling it quits. I feel disappointed and deceived by the author, who fills his books with case studies that are fabrications of fiction (see: Oberlin College). I wanted to believe, but instead I feel like I went to a TedTalk by an opportunistic hypeman lacking real substance and any rooting in reality.

If you're looking for a book that gets you excited about reimagining our product development cycle, this book can check that box, if you treat it as a work of pure fiction before venturing forth. And if you decide to venture forth, please read up on the author first.

The authors tell an encouraging and interesting story about our approach to product development and use today. One where the product 'lifecycle' is from 'cradle' to 'grave' - a product is made and when it dies it goes 'away.' They give lots of good examples of a) why that is a bad thing and b) how we can do it better by opting for a cradle to cradle mentality.

What I liked most about this book was how they peeled apart the subtle metaphors that strongly affect our outlook today for products. Things like: throwing something 'away' (in a closed system!); a strive for 'efficiency' rather than 'effectiveness;' how recycling is more often 'downcycling' (use in a lower quality product) and how we should strive for 'upcycling' when possible; our outlook that doesn't tend to look much past the current generation; our dominate nature mentality rather than living interdependently; our view of natural 'resources' and ourselves as 'consumers.

They also introduced some of their own metaphors like the biological and technical metabolisms, and up and downcycling.

It is a quick read and it is worth buying to experience the book itself - it's made of plastic and is also waterproof.

"The marvelous thing about effective systems is that one wants more of them, not less."

"...all heaven breaks loose"

I highly enjoyed reading this insightful and thought-provoking work. Sometimes it can strike as overly positive or fantasious, but among all the bad news and problems to mitigate the impacts of human activity on the environment, it is quite nice to read from authors who actually believe that is it feasible to achieve it.
Among its pages it takes in consideration many of the concepts I learned about in college -and to which I strongly disagreed such as “natural capital” and “ecosystem services”-, just to re-invent them with a broad perspective of the intricate connections between earth, industry and society. Considering ourselves as separate beings from the living Earth in which que inhabit will only take us to planetary depletion, but to find the means to coexist in a “world of abundance”, as referred by the authors, we need to make a strong effort to redesign our systems with creative eco-effectiveness.