When architect William McDonough designs a factory, he tries to make its waste water clean enough to drink. His buildings are designed to produce more energy than they use and are so light and airy that the workers almost feel they are outdoors. McDonough wants to reinvent everything from tennis shoes to cars so we can consume as much as we wish without harming the planet. He explains to New Scientist why he takes nature as a perfect model for human design, and why effective is better than efficient. Why do you want to redesign the world? Consider this: all the ants on the planet, taken together, have a biomass greater than that of humans. Ants have been incredibly industrious for millions of years, yet their productiveness nourishes plants, animals and soil. Human industry has been in full swing for little more than a century, yet it has brought about a decline in almost every ecosystem on the planet. Nature doesn't have a design problem. People do. The endgame appears to have been to create a world in which we have no real idea of the effects of the chemicals we're using, on us or the environment, combined with the large-scale and inequitable use of natural resources. But that was then - people thought they were doing the right thing. Today is another day. What would your new world look like? We want to design buildings that, like trees, convert solar energy, putting more energy back into the grid than they consume. We want to create factories that produce effluents you can safely drink. We foresee products that, when their useful life is over, do not become useless waste. They can be tossed to the ground to decompose into food for plants and animals - nutrients for the soil - or alternatively can be returned to industrial cycles to supply high-quality raw materials for new products. I see a world of abundance, not limits. Design a product in an ecologically intelligent way and you can use as many of them as you want. read full New Scientist article