Skip to Content

Stanford GSB News

 

Design Buildings to Make Oxygen, Not Consume It, Counsels Architect William McDonough

February, 2003

STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS—"How many buildings do you know that have made oxygen lately?" William McDonough, architect, industrial systems designer, and proponent of eco-effectiveness asked an overflow crowd at the Business School's Bishop Auditorium.

The man Time magazine recognized in 1999 as a "Hero for the Planet" has designed buildings for clients such as Ford and Gap that can do just that. McDonough urged faculty, students, and alumni of the Graduate School of Business to set goals not toward an efficient bottom line of doing the wrong thing less badly, but rather toward the effective top line of doing the right thing. His February 11 appearance was the School's Von Gugelberg Memorial Lecture, an annual event that aims to promote an environmental ethic among GSB students and alumni.

In addition to the speech, McDonough’s visit to the Business School included a lunch with students, faculty, and former Stanford University President Donald Kennedy where conversation touched on attitudes toward current world hostilities. A workshop that included a panel discussion with Rob Cooke, chief operating officer of MBDC (McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry), sold out within three days of being announced. McDonough also met with MBA students working on a study project with his firm.

McDonough and his partner, chemist Michael Braungart, are co-authors of the new book Cradle to Cradle—Remaking the Way We Make Things (North Point Press, 2002). They have been commissioned by Mayor Richard Daley to design "The Chicago Principles," soon to be announced criteria to lead Chicago toward its goal of being the greenest city in the nation. It is a task not unlike McDonough's Hannover Principles, written in 1992 for that city in Germany: nine design considerations that cover the interdependence of humanity and nature, spirit and matter, and urge responsibility for long-term consequences of design decisions.

"Design is the first signal of human intention," McDonough said. All results of human design, from architecture to industry to social order, are strategies that we make choices to create and support. He described our current industrial landscape as a system that measures productivity by how few people are working, and progress by the number of smokestacks, and requires thousands of regulations and constant vigilance while people are living in terror of the potential for harm in our daily goods. "Regulations are signals of design failure," McDonough said. "It is no longer acceptable to say it is not part of the plan. It is time for a new strategy of change."

He offered part of that new strategy by outlining the fundamental design principles used at his firm, MBDC (McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry), when creating everything from non-toxic fabrics to new soles for running shoes that leave nutrients in the soil instead of neurotoxins. Among these fundamentals, based on the fecundity and effectiveness of natural systems, are:

  • Waste equals food
  • Use current solar income
  • Celebrate diversity

The strategy leads to the design of substances that are not simply recycled, but are designed from the outset to be completely reused. "The carpet industry is taking this up with great vigor," he said. When it is time for a new carpet, or new computer, or even a new car, the consumer can send in the old one and it will be reconstituted into its new design, without any waste.

McDonough, who some call a prophet of the "New Industrial Revolution," reminded the audience that "the concept of away has gone away. We used to be able to throw things away, but where is that now?" he quipped.

Describing in detail the dangerous substances used in the creation of a television set, he asked the crowd to consider how we put all that, culminating in the tube that can explode, at eye level for children at play.

When immersing himself in design assignments with his clients, including Ford, Nike, BP, and a litany of other companies that work with trillions of dollars worth of business, he asks them three questions:

  1. How do we love all of the children of all species for all time?
  2. When do we again become indigenous people, native to this place?
  3. How much can I give for how little I get? (The reverse of the classic question of capitalism: How much can I get for how little I give?)

These questions have led to designs like the Gap headquarters in San Bruno, California, built for the particulars of its geographic, climatic, and cultural location. The building has windows that open, a radical design concept that was covered as news by a major business publication. Native grasses grow on the roof, and floors are raised for better temperature control. The utility usage is so low that the PG&E power utility worried that the people in the building would be uncomfortable. When questioned about this, McDonough replied: "We'd rather design a life support system for people who are working than a work support system for people who don't have a life."

He is currently working on the redesign of a factory complex for Ford Motor Co. that is not only eco-effective but also financially sound. His $18 million rainwater treatment system, which includes the grass roof component, is $35 million dollars less expensive than a proposed mechanical process to treat and dispose of storm water.

The lecture series is sponsored by the Von Gugelberg Memorial Fund, established by the MBA Class of 1987 to honor the memory of their classmate Conradin Von Gugelberg, who was dedicated to environmental protection. Past speakers have included elected officials and executives of environmental agencies. "Bill is none of those things," said Donald Kennedy, Stanford University president emeritus, when introducing McDonough. "All he has done is practiced his powerful devotion to a sane environmental future."

—Lisa Eunson