Series:

without the hot air

1 primary work • 2 total works

Book 6

Cover of Sustainable Materials - with both eyes open

Shows how we can greatly reduce the amount of material demanded and used in manufacturing, while still meeting everyone's needs.

Materials support the excellent lifestyle we have in the West. We make them efficiently, but they’re still environmentally harmful. Production of just five materials steel, aluminium, paper, plastics, cement accounts for 55% of industrial emissions. And demand for materials will double by 2050. Can we continue to live well but use less materials? So far people have considered the problem with only one eye open, hoping for a magic solution (such as carbon capture and storage).


But with both eyes open we have a whole new set of options. Rather than making more materials, we can use them more wisely
– with less material, keeping them for longer, re-using their parts and more. These options make a huge difference: we really could set up our children with a more sustainable life, without compromising our own.

Cover of Sustainable Materials without the hot air

Materials, transformed from natural resources into the buildings, equipment, vehicles and goods that underpin our remarkable lifestyle, are made with amazing efficiency. But our growing demand is not sustainable. This optimistic and richly-informed book evaluates all the options and explains how we can greatly reduce the amount of material demanded and used in manufacturing, while still meeting everyone's needs.

"Instead of the usual ya-boo about sustainability, this is a pragmatic guide to getting more value from less stuff. Researched with long-term co-operation from industry, it emphasizes facts and evidence but is aimed at a popular readership." - BBC News Magazine

"A valuable, impartial expert source in an important debate." - Boing Boing