Productivity and Cradle to Cradle Design

Last night I was privileged to hear William McDonough, guru of sustainable design and author of Cradle to Cradle:Remaking the Way We Make Things, speak at UCSB.  I loved his story of sustainably re-designing a textile company in Switzerland. The impetus was a Swiss regulation that recognized the textile scraps as toxic waste (because of the chemicals used in production) which prohibited their being discarded in landfills.  The process was redesigned to use only the non-toxic chemicals, which left them with fewer than 1/3 of the original chemicals. The unexpected result was a 30%  increase in worker productivity. Mr. McDonough postulates that providing a non-toxic work environment sent a message of respect to the employees.

Of course, there will always be grumblers ... some workers complained because they were no longer eligible for hazardous duty pay because the toxic chemicals had been eliminated from the factory.