Ecodesign
Biomimicry -- taken from wikipedia -- (from bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate) is a relatively new science that studies nature, its models, systems, processes and elements and then imitates or takes creative inspiration from them to solve human problems sustainably.
This is exciting new science that will not only improve things environmentally but will aslo improve the bottom line. Currently corporations waste by design. Tomorrow they will mimic the natural systems that they depend upon.
The shift in thinking that is even now ocurring is to look at not things but the relationships between things. In nature this is no such thing as waste, Waste = food. Metabolism is the process by which things are traded. When corporations begin thinking in these natural terms, in the words of Fritjof Capra, Industry has a metabolism too. We'll call it a "technical metabolism". Nature clusters together and a high value is placed upon diversity. The more diverse it is the more resilient to changes it becomes eventually reaching such a steady state we see it as unchanging for untold generations. Industry can and must mimic this behavior. The possibilities are endless.
For instance: when you purchase a tv you don't go out shopping for 4000 toxic chemicals, you just want to watch tv. Remember in nature there are no waste products. We are open systems actively incorporating matter and producing "waste" which is actually food for something else. So what does this mean for industry? Well, since you really want to watch tv not own 4000 toxic chemicals, you rent the tv. The corporation that made the tv will benefit from taking the tv back when it either breaks down or you decide you're done with it. The minerals and chemicals are much more costly to produce the first time than to recycle everything. This changes many things. First of all, it becomes an incentive to make things so they don't break down. Current thinking on this is that if you make something to last then you make less money on replacements. They actually design things to be more difficult to repair to encourage people to buy a new one when they find out to repair the old one will cost more. If corporations take back everything they sell and recylce it, there will then be an incentive to design in a way that makes things easy to repair and can more easily be broken down and reused. This will certainly be more profitable than the current way we do things.
Industries then, like living organisms will be clustered into arrangements that are mutually beneficial. One corporations waste becomes anothers food. The need to recapture and recycle chemicals and metals is based upon cost effectiveness as much as a need to preserve the environment from harm. So these clusters will be "semi closed systems".
