A New Vision 


THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION OF THE LAST TWO CENTURIES CHANGED THE WORLD IN DRAMATIC WAYS. ADVANCES IN THE AFFORDABILITY OF ENERGY AND TRANSPORTATION, MECHANIZATION AND MASS PRODUCTION, AND COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES HAVE YIELDED A HOST OF BENEFITS FOR INDUSTRIALIZED SOCIETIES.

Yet for all the good that came with the Industrial Revolution, its unintended negative consequences are becoming more apparent all the time.

  • Pollution of air, water, and soil from billions of pounds of waste
  • Reduced cultural and biological diversity
  • Degradation of traditional social fabric
  • Tons of valuable materials lost each year to incineration or landfills
  • Production of highly dangerous and persistent materials
  • Reduction of nature's capacity to maintain healthy, fertile ecosystems.
At its heart, the Industrial Revolution is built on a linear, take-make-waste model of material flows. Its productive output is in a cradle-to-grave system. The endpoint for the vast majority of materials used by industry is our material graveyards: landfills and incinerators.
Eco-Efficiency: Fine Tuning the System
Many environmentalists and business leaders sensitive to this legacy have tried to limit the consequences of industrial production by retrofitting the systems of industry to reduce their harm.

This response, generally called eco-efficiency, has admirable goals, but does not change the basic cradle-to-grave model. At its heart, eco-efficiency is a guilt-driven agenda that takes for granted-even institutionalizes-the antagonism between nature and industry.

  A New Vision