MATERIALS AND SUSTAINABILITY

A comprehensive discussion of environmental sustainability as it applies to the materials used in manufacturing. 

Goldstein and Foulkes-Arellano (the founders of JLFG Communications and Circuthon Consulting, respectively) astutely observe that, while natural processes tend to be circular (material inputs are typically matched by material outputs, leaving little waste), human commercial activity is largely linear: “A true circular economy is one where products and materials are kept within productive use for as long as possible, then looped (or circled) back into the manufacturing ecosystem.” Per the authors, our “disposable society” reflexively chooses low costs, innovation, efficiency, and economic growth over sustainability. They analyze the possibilities and challenges of achieving circularity from the perspective of material selection, assessing its significance both within the processes of extraction and manufacturing and from the more synoptic angle of overarching product design. As they see it, material selection is vital to the goal of circularity, and they provide an impressively thorough and intellectually exacting consideration of the materials in question, including metals, wood, glass, and plastic. The authors also discuss, with rigor and clarity, the profound challenge posed by the crucial need to reduce toxicity in materials and manufacturing, the threat posed by electronic waste, and the potential embedded within various commercial and political strategies available to us. This is an exceedingly practical work, packed with concrete illustrations of the authors’ principal points and interviews with industry insiders. The authors impressively balance prudent realism with informed optimism (“It is possible to celebrate advances while being realistic”). For example, they concede that disposable packaging isn’t going to vanish anytime soon, but note that doesn’t exclude the possibility of meaningful progress in the future. Although this is a reference volume—it is not meant to be read through all at once, but rather to be consulted as needed, like an encyclopedia—absorbing it in its entirety leaves one feeling well armed with empirical information and convincing arguments. 

An impressive combination of analytical meticulousness, intellectual scope, and philosophical restraint.