William McDonough '73
McDonough has worked on product design consultation for companies like Volvo and Kiehl’s as well as for the United States Air Force. His major architectural works include Nike’s European headquarters, which has one of the largest rainwater collection systems in Europe; Ford Motor Co.’s Rouge Center, which has one of the most expansive green roofs in the United States; and the Flow House in New Orleans, which is built sustainably and to withstand hurricanes.
McDonough has lofty ambitions. He wants the world to run on 100 percent renewable energy sources and every house to have a green roof that produces food to sustain the family that lives there. Being efficient—saving water and reducing waste while saving time and money—is just ruining the environment less quickly. Simply reducing waste is not good enough. McDonough believes in first “eco-effectiveness,” which he defines as “a human industry that is safe, profitable, and regenerative, producing economic, environmental, and social value.” Efficiency comes second. It is the job of designers, not company managers, to make this ideal combination a reality.
According to McDonough, we should reconstruct our plans for meeting these goals. We should not aim for a final goal of zero (i.e. zero carbon emissions, zero waste, etc.) in which the only solution seems to be zero human presence. Instead, as we reduce waste, we should also create new buildings and products that are both eco-efficient and eco-effective. We minimize what is “bad” and increase what is “good.”
McDonough maintains the optimistic view that we are not at a dead end. McDonough recalled that when someone asked whether politically he went left or right, he replied: “I don’t do left or right. I go forward and I see speed-bumps as an opportunity to levitate.” He applies this forward-thinking mindset to his work: if a person is intelligent and creative enough, they will find a solution. The question is not “if,” but “how.”
McDonough gave two examples of this innovative thinking in his own work. In a city in China, the closest source of renewable energy (windmills) was miles away, but he found new ways to channel that energy to the city’s grid. On an island off the coast of Denmark where there is very little daylight, he found other ways for the island to produce its own food. Rather than being stymied by the lack of solar energy, McDonough thought outside the box and used windmills to power greenhouses. (They also found out that strawberries can grow in the dark!)
“How do I love all the children of all species [on the earth] for all of time?” is the question that lies at the core of McDonough’s value. He is not afraid of population growth. Instead he says that as the population rises we will find ways to keep living on the earth. He put out a challenge to the audience to find their values and never let them go.
An audience member posed the question: what exactly can we do as Dartmouth students? McDonough says that we should do what makes us happy, because we are going to have to work very hard in life. The beauty of a liberal arts education is the fact that students can study whatever they want and create a way for it to be useful in the future.
Unlike many other environmentalists, McDonough does not send a message of doom. He does not say that we are on an unstoppable downward spiral. Rather he is confident that humans, specifically upcoming generations, will be able to change the way we live on the earth.
Nike European Headquarters
Sources:
William McDonough + Partners: Architecture and Community Design. Projects. 2012.< http://www.mcdonoughpartners.com/projects/featured>
MBDC Cradle to Cradle Design. Cradle to Cradle Concepts. 2012 < http://www.mbdc.com/detail.aspx?linkid=1&sublink=26>