“In 1993, Bill McDonough, a business friendly environmentalist, and a chemist, Michael Braungart, were hired by the Swiss textile manufacturer Rohner Textil, which produces the fabrics for Steelcase chairs. Their mission was one that most people in the textile industry considered impossible: Create a manufacturing process without using toxic chemicals. To tackle this problem, they needed to find a partner in the chemical industry. Sixty chemical companies turned them down, before one, Ciba-Geigy – accepted the challenge. McDonough and Braungart studied 8,000 chemicals commonly used in the textile industry; of these, only 38 were deemed “safe enough to eat”. However, just using those 38 chemicals, they were able to create a complete line of fabrics, with every color, except black. When they started the manufacturing process using this new set of chemicals, the Swiss regulators came to the factory, as usual, to make sure the emissions were within government limits. At first, they thought their equipment was broken, but after rechecking it, they concluded that the water coming out after the manufacturing process had been done was actually cleaner than the water going into the factory. In other words, the fabrics used in the manufacturing process was filtering the water, so the emissions were now cleaner than normal Swiss drinking water. And just as importantly, the real world, the new manufacturing process was 20% cheaper, in part because they didn’t need to ship off the polluted water and manufacturing materials, and workers no longer had to wear protective clothing. ”
