WEDESDAY, JAN 11, 2023: NOTE TO FILE
Module 1-9
A short 8-week course in ecological design, module 1, lesson 9
Eric Lee, A-SOCIATED PRESS
TOPICS: SUSTAINABILITY, FROM THE WIRES, LANGUAGE GAMES
Abstract: As I have sustainability concerns and concerns for posterity's and the biosphere's future, I will start a course in Ecological Design tomorrow, which is one of four 'dimensions' of the offering. Subnotes to file will likely follow.
COOS BAY (A-P) — The 9th lesson. [My comments are in brackets.]
Ecological Engineering
The basic principles in the field of ecological engineering were first put forward by Howard T. Odum in his book Environment, Power and Society [1971] over thirty-five years ago. The fundamental idea is that, in addition to modelling human designed systems on Nature, we can use complete ecologies to carry out useful tasks. [I read this book at the age of 18 and the updated version for the 21st century he was working on in 2002 when he died, finished by Mark Brown after H.T.'s death. Odum's fundamental idea, as stated here, was utterly lost upon me. Odum did 'use' wetlands, constructed wetlands, to provide economic services, hence The Howard T. Odum Center for Wetlands at the University of Florida is named after him, but this was an aside to his science that remains underrated, i.e. ahead of its time.]
Living technologies are different from dead technologies in that the main working parts are alive. This means they are not really “parts” at all, but participants in a continuously transforming web of living relationships and processes. Such living systems self-replicate, auto-regulate and form adaptive networks within networks at different scales. We can work with these complex adaptive systems to support them in their regenerative functions. Different ecologies can be linked to handle many inputs, self-manage a multitude of internal, closed-loop functions and provide a variety of outputs. Howard Odum stated:
"The inventory of species of the earth is really an immense bin of parts available to the ecological engineer. A species evolved to play one role may be used for a different purpose in a different kind of network as long as its maintenance flows are satisfied." [As quoted by Dr. John Todd who cites the 1971 Environment, Power, and Society. A scan of the 2007 update does not include this quote nor portions of it. The phrase 'ecological engineering' was used over 25 times, but 'ecological engineer' was not used. I know Mark Brown who likely has a digital version of the original book to scan for this quote.]
While the language is still mechanistic, what Odum was referring to here is that if we design with nature we can restore and regenerate ecosystems services. John Todd describes ecological design as the science of following nature’s operating instructions and the art of creating elegant solutions adapted to the uniqueness of place. As we have seen, David Holmgren has integrated much of Odum’s work, especially on energy flows through a system, into Permaculture.
Within the last few decades practitioners in ecology, design and the fields of complexity and chaos dynamics have begun to communicate to their shared benefit. This exchange is beginning to influence ecological engineering. Stuart Kauffman (1993) has studied how self-organisation, ranging in scale from the molecular level to large ecosystems, is generated in Nature. He has proposed an explanation of why self-organisation and self-design occur in the natural world and why it is possible to use these attributes in technological settings.
Rather than manipulating parts of the system in a mechanistic way, we pay attention to interactions and relationships, as well as information, material and energy flows, and as co-participants in these systems aim to create design solutions that facilitate the emergence of desired systems properties and behaviours. Rather than pretending that this is an exact and predictable science, we simply have to stay humble and keep learning how to dance creatively with life’s systemic dynamics.
Howard T. Odum is known for his pioneering work on Ecosystem Ecology.
5.1. The Bioshelter
One example that demonstrates the whole-systems approach of ecological design is the ‘bioshelter’, a multi-purpose greenhouse which is particularly relevant to ecovillage design. Ecologically engineered systems are used to treat wastes, grow multiple food products, heat and cool the structures, and generate energy. We have seen this already in the work of John and Nancy Jack Todd. Their book, From Eco Cities to Living Machines gives many examples. One of the early experiments with bioshelter design was done at the New Alchemy Institute and called the Cape Cod Ark. The excellent article to the construction and maintenance of the Ark shows the overlap with Permaculture Design, particularly in the bioclimatic elements of construction.
Dr. Todd is one of the pioneers in the emerging field of ecological design and engineering.
5.2. Cradle to Cradle (C2C)
One successful way of taking the concepts of ecological design and industrial ecology into the heart of many industries has been the Cradle to Cradle (C2C) framework of improvement promoted by William McDonough and Michael Braungart. They contributed a very useful distinction between technical and biological metabolism. All material flows should remain within one of these two cycles. That is the basis for creating circular economies. [Some circular material flow are possible, e.g. copper, but current recycling is not remotely close to 100% and for energy the 2nd law prevents any circular flow. Any tehnology that depends on mined materials may be rebuildable, but only for a time. The condition that will come anyway is low energy systems based on some material circular flows, e.g. salt from evaporating seawater to table salt, excretion in urine/skin, slow via rainwater powered by solar energy back to sea, and other cycles e.g. hdralic, carbon and nitrogen.]
To achieve this shift towards integrated, cyclical whole-systems design we need to transform products, and how we design and produce them, in ways that allow disused products at the end of their useful life to be disassembled into fully recyclable or up-cyclable industrial feedstock or organic feedstock. [Decomposers use available energies to degrade organic materials for up-cycling, but the energetics of recycling industrial waste, e.g. plastic, allow for less than 10% to be recyled even with current levels of energy abundance. All palastic will end up as microplastics as energy to concentrate microplastics or gold... disolved in seawater is not available and the heat produced if there were would make Earth's surface uninhabitable even if the illimitabe energe source also was used to return CO2 level to 1950 norms or run AC units the size of mountains.]
In McDonough and Braungart’s book The Upcycle, they ask: “How can humans – the people of this generation – upcycle for future generations? … How can people love all of the children, of all species, for all time?” (2013: 49). The graphic below illustrates the ‘Cradle to Cradle Continuous Improvement Strategy’ they propose in order to implement a transformation of our industrial systems. Rather than stopping at ‘sustainable’ (0% bad) the Cradle to Cradle approach is also regenerative, aiming for 100% good. Watch William McDonough’s TED-talk (21mins) on Cradle to Cradle.
Simply to recycle is not enough, if it only leads to a material finding another use in a less valuable and less complex product before ultimately ending in a landfill or as waste. Up-cycling is about maintaining biological and industrial nutrients (resources) cycling through the biological and industrial metabolisms of our industrial processes so that they can be converted into higher quality or equal quality products at the end of a product’s useful life.
“Using the Cradle to Cradle framework,
we can upcycle to talk about designing
not just for health but for abundance, proliferation, delight.
We can upcycle to talk about not how human industry can be just
‘less bad,’ but how it an be more good,
an extraordinary positive in the world.”
William McDonough & Michael Braungart (2013)
5.3. Regenerative Design
Bill Reed has mapped out some of the essential shifts that will be needed to create truly regenerative cultures. In ‘Shifting our Mental Models’ laid out a framework that puts different approaches to ecological design into a relationship with regard to the extent that they aim for truly regenerative solutions. Reed argues:
“Instead of doing less damage to the environment, it is necessary to learn how we can participate with the environment – using the health of ecological systems as a basis for design. […] The shift from a fragmented worldview to a whole systems mental model is the significant leap our culture must make – framing and understanding living system interrelationships in an integrated way. A place-based approach is one way to achieve this understanding. […] Our role, as designers and stakeholders is to shift our relationship to one that creates a whole system of mutually beneficial relationships.”
Bill Reed (2007: 674)
Reed named [omission in original] and as the foundations of the shift in mental model that we need to create a regenerative culture. As Bill Reed puts it:. Once we make this shift in perspective, we can understand life as “a whole process of continuous evolution towards richer, more diverse, and mutually beneficial relationships”. [The understand should result in observable change when reduced to practice, i.e. be practical and evidenced, not theoretical.]
The figure above shows the different shifts in perspective as we move from ‘business as usual’ to creating a regenerative culture. The aim to create regenerative cultures transcends and includes sustainability. Restorative design aims to restore healthy self-regulation to local ecosystems. In the early versions of this figure Bill Reed included reconciliatory design before regenerative to highlight humanity’s participatory involvement in life’s process and the unity of nature and culture. Regenerative design aims to create regenerative (socio-ecological) systems capable of continuous learning and transformation in response to, and anticipation of, inevitable change.
The graph below puts different whole systems approaches to ecological or regenerative design into context and shows that they relate in a ‘transcend and include’ way to each other, meaning that we should not think of them as an either/or approach but employ them as complementary approaches that can helps us move the cultural transition along towards a redesign of the human presence on earth and the co-creation of diversely adapted regenerative cultures everywhere (more).
Addemdum from The Upcycle:
In the words of William McDonough
American architect, designer, and author,
WHAT IS THE UPCYCLE?
Cradle to Cradle is a foundation, a fulcrum against which we can lean levers of desirable change. This book, The Upcycle, is an update and a collection of observations and stories of continuous improvement. To us, upcy¬cling is the most exciting project of all. It’s going to take all of us. It’s going to take forever. And that’s the point.
PUT “OUT OF SIGHT” OUT OF MIND
The next time you want to use the word “waste,” bite your tongue. Worms consume food and, through the system of their bodies, produce richer nutrients. You, through the system of your intelligence, can create richer nutrients too.
ALWAYS ASK WHAT’S NEXT
We want you to think of every component of your design as being borrowed. It will be returned one day to the biosphere or technosphere. It is your role to return it in as good a condition as you found it, as a good neighbor would.
YOU ARE ALIVE. (YOUR TOASTER IS NOT.)
We have been in this work for decades, and still . . . still we stop every time a company mentions a technical product as having a product life or life cycle. Technical products don’t die and vanish. This is the problem and the opportunity.
OPTIMIZE
Speak to the world in positives. Don’t be a pessimist: The glass is half empty. But don’t just be a passive optimist either: The glass is half full. Start with inventory; take scientific stock of your situation. The glass is full of water and air. Then signal your intention for design. I want the glass to be bigger.
YOU CAN, YOU WILL
No need for scolding. No need for “shoulds” and “musts.” The job of upcycle advocates is to encourage people and to inspire behaviors, helping all entities understand that change is possible, beneficial, profitable.
ADD GOOD
We can find ways to honor people’s intentions. Think small, think big, think adding good on top of subtracting bad. There is always room for more additionality. We can add on, not just pile on.
GAZE AT THE WORLD AROUND YOU, THEN BEGIN
Get specific about your locality. You will arrive at more ingeniously indigenous solutions if you let the locality guide you. Some solutions can have global benefits and applications, but remember to start where you are.
THE TIME IS NOW
We—all of us—have a lot to do. We know that this work requires all of us and it will take forever, but some of this work is urgent. Let’s start now.
GO FORWARD BENEFICIALLY
You have one life and, like a tree, you can create abundance, a profusion. You are a known positive. No need to think of yourself as misplaced in the natural world, or that you cause destruction with your presence. Accept that deep in your heart and mind. Then go forward. Be successful. We hope to enjoy all that you share. And tell your children that things are looking up.
MORE GOOD
Doing less bad is not the same as doing more good. We are seeing the uptake of this idea. Don’t think about minimizing the footprint of a person or society. Think about a beneficial footprint. Efficiency as insufficient, but we honor the transitional state. Committing to continuous improvement is the beginning of a great journey.
WHAT IF…?
We know that energy independence and local jobs are important. We can upcycle our thinking about how to get more of both. Amtrak, represents a ribbon of real estate for distribution of renewable energy across the country, creating jobs for each community along the way. Why not?
MINDFULNESS
We are in a hurry, and we’re not even thinking. It is time to move from being timefully mindless to being timelessly mindful.
GO FORWARD BENEFICIALLY
You have one life and, like a tree, you can create abundance, a profusion. You are a known positive. No need to think of yourself as misplaced in the natural world, or that you cause destruction with your presence. Accept that deep in your heart and mind. Then go forward. Be successful. We hope to enjoy all that you share. And tell your children that things are looking up.
NUTRIENT CYCLES
As we discussed in Cradle to Cradle, they key is that everything exists within one of two nutrient cycles—biological or technical. Once we treat things as nutrients. It was the early 1990s when I first started saying “away has gone away.” I am delighted by the prospect of endless resourcefulness of energy, things, and people. Short sighted design thinking can result in intergenerational remote tyranny. Good design is a human right. There is no more delightfully serious function in life and in business that to create joy. Houston, we have a solution.
Module 1, lesson 10
