Architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart argue that human industry need not damage the natural world. They explain how products can be designed so that, after their useful lives, they will provide nourishment for something new.

Upward trending and volatile materials and energy prices, difficult credit conditions and the myriad opportunities of the digital revolution are combining to make a circular economy the key value driver for the coming decades. A New Dynamic makes the contemporary case for a profound shift from throughput to 'roundput', from ownership to access. The circular economy is enabled by disruptive information technology and the design of materials and products to flow in effective cycles and at high quality - 'made to be made again'. The size of the prize is in the billions of dollars of materials...