Natural Capitalism:

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Natural Capitalism

• The Next
• Industrial Revolution

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Our present industrial system is based on
technology created 200 years ago..

• It requires enormous heat and pressure.
• It is petrochemically dependent.
• It is materials-intensive.
• It is extremely inefficient.

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Inefficiencies

• Only 6 of raw materials used to
  produce goods end up as products.
• The ratio of waste to durable products is 100
  1.
• The economy is less than 10 as energy-efficient
  as the laws of physics permit.

4
Traditional poor designs can last for
generations, even centuries, because they are

• Known to work
• Convenient
• Easily copied
• Seldom questioned.

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For example, the space between the tracks of
modern railways can be traced back to 18th
century wagons, which in turn can be traced back
to medieval designers measuring the ruts in
ancient roads built by the Romans 2000 years ago.
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Natural Capitalism

• Introduces a visionary concept that regards
  business, environmental, and social interests as
  an integrated, harmonious system.
• Uses concept of design by efficiency instead of
  tradition.
• Demonstrates that such an approach can SAVE
  BUSINESSES MONEY!
• Documents cost savings with dozens of
  real-world examples.

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Some key concepts

• Lean thinking.
• Net shape manufacturing.
• Whole system engineering.

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Lean thinking works to eliminate waste in
production, such as

• Mistakes which require correction.
• Production of items no one wants.
• Unnecessary processing steps.
• Having people standing around waiting for parts.

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Net shape manufacturing

• Makes virtually every molecule of material fed
  into the production process emerge into a useful
  product.
• For example, a tricycle was re-designed from 126
  parts to 26 parts, saving 75 of the cost of
  production.

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Whole-system engineering

• Mimics nature.
• Looks at the life cycle of a product or building,
  instead of each part in isolation. Taking things
  in isolation is like nature creating a pelican
  without creating fish.
• Uses compounding efficiencies to reduce raw
  material or energy usage.

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Case study 1 Motors

• Use 60 of the worlds energy.
• Industrial motors use pumps, often running 24/7.
  
• Most of a pumps energy is used to fight
  friction.

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Typical pumping system compounding losses

• Power plant 70
• Transmission and distribution 9
• Motor 10
• Pump 25
• Throttle 33
• Pipes 20

Thus 90 of fuel is wasted!
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Case Study 2 Office building design
Consider an actual 200,000 square foot building
in Chicago. The cooling load was reduced by
85by using
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• Super energy efficient windows.
• Deep daylighting.
• Efficient lights and office equipment.

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With this savings, the air conditioning unit

• Could be 3/4 of the size of the original unit.
• 4 times as efficient.
• Cost 200,000 less, a sum which paid for all the
  other improvements.
• The annual energy bill fell by 75.

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Case Study 3 Contemporary automobile

• After 100 years it is embarrassingly inefficient.
• It has many protrusions, edges, and seams that
  block air flow.
• Tires waste energy by flexing and heating up.
• The disparity between the engines large output
  capability and its modest normal loads cuts its
  normal loads efficiency by 50.
• Thus only 1 of energy propels the car!

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The re-designed car
In 1991, the first test model car was created by
a research institute and the design was put in
the public domain,or open-sourced.
This created competition and adoption.
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Using compounding, making a car one pound
lighter, actually makes it one and one-half pound
lighter, for

• It needs a lighter structure and suspension to
  support the weight.
• A smaller engine to move it.
• Smaller brakes to stop it.
• Less fuel to run the engine.
• Power steering and power brakes are not needed
  for lighter-weight cars.

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Electric or hybrid cars

• Use no energy when idling.
• Are very efficient they convert up to 90 of
  the electricity produced into traction.
• Can recover electricity by deceleration.

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Ultra-light cars

• Wind resistance can be cut by 40-60 by
  streamlining details such as making the cars
  underside as smooth as the top and slightly
  smaller frontal area.
• Use carbon-fiber composites that can cut weight
  by 2 to 3 times. Crash tests have proven that
  ultra-light cars are at least as safe as standard
  cars.
• Can be cheaper and more durable than traditional
  cars, since they have fewer moving parts.

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These key concepts and case studies are just the
tip of the iceberg for natural capitalism. They
concentrate on manufacturing efficiencies--just
one piece of the pie.
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Some ideas will seem impossible, and maybe they
are. Just keep in mind, that during the first
industrial revolution, in the span of just 70
years, one person could do what it used to take
200 people to do. In the year 1840, how many
people would have predicted such an outcome?