314: hope for a sustainable future, by design

I really enjoyed today's linked article from this week's Newsweek, which gave me a lot of hope that industry can become greener and energy cleaner, with a little imagination and investment. In the piece, Fareed Zakaria interviews the visionary green architect William McDonough, whose company has already designed many energy-efficient and visually sympathetic buildings - including an office tower shaped like a tree, which would produce more in the way of nutrients and oxygen than it consumes (see the photo gallery linked to the article for that). In interview, McDonough also discusses the potential of new technologies to make industrial production extremely low-impact and effectively zero-waste, citing a Swiss textile mill that takes in and emits crystal clear water fit for drinking! McDonough's take on this topic is reassuring, because he's not just imagining the possibilities but realizing them too. It shows what we could achieve, if we only had the collective will - and a few creative folk like McDonough.