Natural Capitalism

Fuel cells are at least as efficient but are silent, clean, reliable, scaleable to virtually any size desired, and ultimately capable of costs five to ten times below those of combined-cycle gas turbines.55

A Hypercar, weighing two to three times less than a conventional car, would require about 92 percent less iron and steel, one-third less aluminum, three-fifths less rubber, and up to four-fifths less platinum.

the Bellcomb47 system of cardboard-like honeycombs sandwiched between sheets of cheap strandwood (pressed like chipboard, but using tough fibrous strands of wood). The sandwiches are prefabricated in many precisely cut shapes that fit tightly together like a child’s miniature house kit—only this kit can be full-sized. Two unskilled adults could ass

His redesign required, as inventor Edwin Land used to say, “not so much having a new idea as stopping having an old idea.”

if there is to be prosperity in the future, society must make its use of resources vastly more productive—deriving four, ten, or even a hundred times as much benefit from each unit of energy, water, materials, or anything else borrowed from the planet and consumed.

Because products would be returned to the manufacturer for continuous repair, reuse, and remanufacturing, Stahel called the process “cradle-to-cradle.” 19

technical devices to production systems to companies to economic sectors to entire cities and societies.

to one another with the product kept in continuous flow. The goal is to have no stops, no delays, no backflows, no inventories,

These tools include institutional innovations that can create new markets in avoided resource depletion and abated pollution, maximize competition in saving resources, and convert the cost of a sulfur tax or a carbon-trading price into profits realized from the sale and use of efficient technologies.

management-intensive rotational grazing (MIRG)