Bill McDonough Gets Trashed in Fast Company
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 10.20.08
TreeHugger loves Bill McDonough; We have probably written more posts about him and his cradle-to-cradle certification than any other individual. He is the king of the green one-liner, a brilliant and entertaining speaker, and a pretty good architect. He is a successful green entrepreneur and gets to hang out with Richard Branson, Larry Page, Daryl Hannah and Elon Musk. He speaks at TED and at the Democratic Convention.
Which is why my jaw dropped to the floor when I read Danielle Sacks' demolition job in Fast Company.
why is this man smiling? He hasn't read the article yet.
McDonough has always impressed with his speaking. "Much of the challenge in the environmental movement is to tell compelling stories in a way that is accessible to a broad public," says Maurice Cox, an architecture professor at the University of Virginia that hired McDonough in 1994. "We were struck by his ability to tell a story, to make environmental issues seem to matter. I think there was also an incredible urgency that he communicated."
We are told that he learned "his hypnotic oratory by studying "the Art of Memory" which chronicles how Roman senators gave gripping three hour speeches that brought audiences to their knees. "
By 2002, the book Cradle to Cradle was out and he became known as the "Prophet of Bloom" and by 2008 was getting seven page profiles in Vanity Fair, which includes quotes like " “When it comes to new ways of shifting our sustainability paradigms, Bill is the granddaddy of this way of thinking. He’s the visionary inventor, there before anyone. And now he’s actually building the factories that make clean water, working on the concept cars that make clean air, doing the big thinking that is moving things forward.”
Danielle Sacks is not so sure. She finds evidence that Cradle to Cradle is not particularly original to McDonough, and then describes how McDonough tries to own the rights to everything. Hunter Lovins describes trying to work with him at Interface Carpets: "Bill was trying to gain the reputation as the thought leader in this field, going around trademarking terms." (like "triple top line" and "ride the wind") He eventually fell out with the company, which went on to become the face of green industry. (TreeHugger has covered how Shaw Industries got cradle to cradle certification).
He fell out with Nike (again, over proprietary claims), and appears to have offended a whole lot of people; environmental consultant John Picard says “I was with a group at MIT [in May] with influential billionaires in the room. One person said, ‘Why aren’t we working with Bill?" Three people out of the eight had dealings with Bill, and they were not favourable, says Picard. "They were adamant that they did not want to work with him."
Sacks points out how his architecture projects are not working out quite as planned (like Huangbaiyu in China, which is mostly abandoned).
But most troubling for me is the section on Cradle to Cradle certification, which is not taking off as quickly has one might have hoped.
Not only is the take-up a lot slower than expected, but criticism of it is getting louder. It is well known that there is concern that the system is proprietary, but also that it is "a black box. You can see what is going in and what is going out but you're not privy to exactly what's going on inside the process." It is not transparent or consensus based, and there is the appearance of conflict. Not only that, companies are jumping ship for" an open, transparent certification called SMaRT, a nonprofit coalition of government, companies and environmental groups."
It is a shocker that sometimes goes over the top: Sacks asserts that people are keeping quiet and are shielding McDonough because "if word gets out that he may not be all that he appears, the overall cause of sustainability could suffer." That's a bit much, no one is completely without sin.
But the article paints a picture of a vain, litigious and greedy self-promoter that is hard to put down or ignore. In the November issue of Fast Company; Online at Fast Company Here
Some Bill McDonough Posts in TreeHugger:
William McDonough on Nuclear Power
Quote of the Day: William McDonough on the Triple Top Line
Musings from Verdopolis: Bill McDonough
Quote of the Day: Bill McDonough on Green Renovation
Bill McDonough in China:
Designing Sustainable Cities For China
Cradle to Cradle:
Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough & Michael Braungart
Cradle To Cradle In Practice– A Workshop With Dr. Michael ...
Book: Cradle to Cradle
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- Cradle to Cradle - Hype or Future? An exhibition about what could be the next industrial revolution.
- So Long 2008, and Thanks for All the Posts
- Reddit Yet? TreeHugger's Top 25 Posts from 2008 on Reddit.com
- Around the Gingerbread World 2008: Hot and Not
Bioneers 2008: AskNature.org Outlines What Nature Has to Offer for Biomimicry
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We Need a New Green Politics! James Gustave Speth on The Change Needed in the Environmental Movement
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I was at UVA's school of architecture when McDonough was there. My former classmates and I, including people who have worked for him and his firm, have been telling anyone who will listen that he is not all that he seems for almost 10 years. Funny how long it's taken for word to get around.
I guess the MO at Fast Company has changed to criticize others, possibly for readership and links (remember the LEED article). Back in 1998, Fast Company had a different perspective.
But how about the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development or Time's Hero for the Planet? How about assisting with Pitt's Make It Right Project? I'll have to go read the article, but I for one have been inspired by McDonough, even if it's only because of that Bioneers video on Youtube or the concepts in his book. He deserves more respect, I personally believe. Thanks for the heads up Lloyd.
I've seen McDonough speak a number of times and read _Cradle to Cradle_, He has done some fine work and deep thinking about the issues but I also know that he has an ego. I heard the solar designer Steve Strong express his doubts about McDonough based upon his experiences trying to work with him. Strong was circumspect but said that McDonough thinks he knows much more about solar than he actually does.
Oh well, we're all human.
I do wish that McDonough and Hawken would resurrect their idas about a window utility now that we finally have some interest in doing something about energy efficiency in a big(ger) way.
I heard about McDonugh but knew little about him till I saw the bioneers video. I bought and read the Cradle to Cradle book and looked for other writings and ideas from the man.
He is both an inspiring figure and has an oversize ego. So be it. As a young draftsman designing houses some 20 years ago, I was struck even then by how bad their design was in terms of how we treated the lots they would be built in (cut and fill to ground level, wipe out any tree that got in the way, regardless of value, and bitch about the approval process in the few towns that had serious ARBs).
There were two lots in particular that we basically trashed that I remember well. Beautiful sites, one near a stream, the other one with a large, ancient tree right in the middle of it. I loved architecture, but done that way I felt like an accomplice to a crime. When McDonough talks about his early toxic work and his realization that it was wrong, he speaks to me.
Also, we had to meet New York state's energy code, but other than that there was nothing intelligent about how energy was used in these homes. Often huge glass areas would face the wrong way. There was no respect for context at any scale.
His refusal to continue to work that way is no small feat. The profession is conservative and the people who put up the money (builders, developers) even more so. You risked credibility if you raised environmental issues at the height of the Reagan Revolution. This was the era of postmodernism. Michael Graves was popular. He was a good speaker too, by the way.
So McDonough did the right thing, he did it when it wasn't popular, and now he has a big ego. Well, I probably would too in his shoes. Architects are often a step away from vanity. Successful ones more so.
This hurts his effectiveness and the cause. I can't find any official video or audio of McDonough you don't have to pay for. This is no way to get the word out.
Perhaps he needs to break the mold one more time. This time it might be harder, since the mold is of his own making. He needs to go Open Source, at least partially, or else his notions will not scale. I wish him the best of luck figuring this out.
Regardless, he will always have my thanks.
I think both Braungart & McDonough are eco-evangelists (as mentioned in the article) and anyone actually believing that these two prophets are magicians should come back to the ground and realize that their job is to convince others of this c2c approach. Nothing more than that.
If this requires better rhetorics and influential companies & Hollywood celebrities - it just goes to show to me how the industry works and when they will start listening to smart ideas.
I mean - would you blame (former Apple evangelist) Guy Kawasaki every time your MacBook doesn't work?
Likewise, B & McD are just like Obama - someone who tells us "Yes we can". But we have to do the hard work and keep on telling others about the tree full of cherrys that doesn't produce waste but instead nutrients.
As for their business ventures - where else should the money come from? That Nike deal sounds a bit strange though. And China: I've seen another eco-city in China that didn't take off in a way I had expected it, but I would never blame it on those who financed or planed it in the first place, but instead the Chinese who tried to built it too fast without having a real working concept.
I think it is very hard to revolutionize the world if others only measure your success by the outcomes if instead your initial intention was to drop a few seeds only and see where this approach will lead to.
I too was there at UVA school of architecture when McDonough was there and was unimpressed. Sure, he's an amazing motivational speaker, who regurgitates the same speech over and over. Then, if you get to meet any of the people he champions (as I did, when I took his class, 'Environmental Choices') what you really learn is that what he's doing is taking the messages of people who are really 'doing the work' and 'breaking ground' and making like they were his own.
Now sure, not everyone is a good salesman, and I do think there's a niche for someone to 'get the word out'. But there is no good reason to make yourself look amazing on the backs of others and not really give them credit. Also, once you heard the people speak he was 'borrowing' from, you realized how great they were and how vacant some of the stuff he was saying was- because he wasn't a specialist, just a salesman.
And a somewhat overinflated one at that. Champion people for the right reasons I say. McDonough has an amazing flair for the pitch, but you really can't count on him for substance (from experience).
Very enlightening. The article raises some questions, but from reading Cradle to Cradle I already had an idea of a visionary/salesman's-pitch-giving type for McDonough. Great architects are not always great business people, or great at self-promotion, nor are self-promoting architects always great.
I think the article, and the comments preceding, have done a really good job of balancing some of the enthusiastic reception given at TH to McDonough. That said, he's an acknowledged leading figure in the green movement, and therefor influential and newsworthy. So I will gladly follow future developments as they are brought to light in TreeHugger.
Great post.
@Alonso Perez
I couldn’t have said it better myself
This article was disgusting even for a publication such as Fast Company.
Why don’t you do a smear job on one of your (American) shyster investment bankers who made millions and may very well have helped cause a global economic disaster while doing it. Or what about those hypocrites at Nike! This company has been built on deception and false marketing – I can’t believe you would allow these people to accuse McDonough of being guilty of their own tricks.
It’s ok to debate the ideas (which the article did not do) but don’t attack someone and their work so personally. Looking for greenwashing and public deception: why not attack Obama's biofuels policy? Or Al Gore's environmenal record while in power? Did Mcdonough have fewer press spinsters to get through? Maybe you picked an easier target who would not sue?
Mcdonough simply got caught in his own culture and chose the wrong country from which to encourage change.
I have watched McDonough for years (since 1994). He is an original thinker. Unfortunately, like many designers, he is not a good business leader. He has also started to believe his own bull which can be a dangerous thing. I believe there are many more companies out there that have had unfortunate experiences with this man. Everyone has a right to make money, but Bill seems to think that his work is totally unique and therefore he is owed millions for his ideas. The idea of cradle to cradle is not unique and can be argued that it did not originate with McDonough. The process of MDBC certfication is not transparent and therefore totally irrelevant. There are much better assessment tools available through credible organizations. He missed the boat and somehow seems to think he is still the only captain capable of steering the ship. He is sadly wrong.
Bill, come back to Staples High School in Westport, and help us install solar there... Time to retrace the roots of your vocation. Realize you're not the only one the aliens bit in the synapses with their save the planet bug! I never trademarked anything... and I've invented just as much stuff... it's all a question of balance. Our priority right now should be a global green fashion magazine... kick Daniel in the derriere for being such a lazy lass!
More on cradle to cradle can be found here: http://www.product-life.org/en/cradle-to-cradle