McDonough + Partners founder William McDonough recalls the history of how his design firm came to investigate and inventory the marketplace of tens of thousands of industrial compounds, chemicals, and building materials, and how he has sought to both simplify and detoxify the process of product and architectural design. The supply chain is kinked with so many layers of products that even well-meaning manufacturers might not know the character of the toxic and disease-inducing compounds they employ. This industrial naivite has led McDonough to archive thousands of these industrial building blocks and rate their numerous properties and uses - and he encourages designers and inventors to consider this research in the engineering process.

An executive needs to structure the enterprise to do the right thing, and a manager needs to insure that this directive is carried out in the right way. The first question any institution needs to ask itself is that of the executive, says McDonough + Partners' William McDonough. If the organization is doing the right thing, it is indicative of its effective and thoughtful leadership.

Any "ism" is an extreme and dangerous thing, says William McDonough, McDonough + Partners. And finding that balance between capitalism, socialism, and ecologism is the engineering of good design and sustainable development. Using a mathematical fractal paradigm, here McDonough puts forth questions that every ecologically- and socially-minded entrepreneur should pose to produce a product and business model that is simultaneously profitable, equitable, and renewable.

McDonough + Partners lead William McDonough points out that manufacturers can utilize the same resources repeatedly, and build a lifetime buying relationship with their customer in the process. By closing the product cycle - that is, designing goods with their deconstruction and reconstruction in mind - product developers are uniquely poised to deepen their customer relationship. McDonough cites a case study of a carpet manufacturer that employs <i>Cradle to Cradle</i> design. Customers "lease" the carpet, and are offered financial incentive to return it after its term of use, where the manufacturer can strip it, reuse the backing, and replenish the fibers into new design - keeping toxic chemicals out of the environment, and unwanted product from the landfill.

How important is the role of cheerful architecture in the business world? It can mean significantly increased profits, says William McDonough, founder of McDonough + Partners. For one Michigan-based chair manufacturer, a new working environment and factory floor flush with daylight, fresh air, and an "aloha shirt" mentality nearly doubled worker productivity.

Any kind of government regulation on the enterprise is a signal of design failure - but also an opportunity to improve upon and grow a more efficient business archetype. McDonough + Partners founder William McDonough points out that any business model that has roused government intervention - for pollution, carcinogens, etc. - presents an opportunity for better design and a more well-rounded approach to entrepreneurship.

Eco-efficiency often means being less toxic overall, but architect and designer William McDonough, McDonough + Partners, believes that true green design and the architecture of business needs to turn over a new leaf. Being effective, and not just efficient, is key to long-term success.

Eliminating the concept of waste, using current solar availability, and the celebration of diversity rethinks business-building resources from their most basic natural elements, and encourages entrepreneurs to think about the entire lifecycle of the products and service they create. William McDonough of McDonough + Partners calls these elements "biological nutrients" and "technical nutrients", and views them as endlessly reusable tools that feed and fuel the continuously revolving wheel between producer and consumer.