Cool Hunting

Nathan Shedroff's new book, "Design is the Problem", presents a practical and layman-accessible exploration of sustainable design. In it, he breaks the progress towards sustainability into five parts: learning how to reduce, reuse, recycle, restore, and process. And Shedroff isn't afraid to get in reader's faces about the issue, either, bluntly stating that we need to "get over the guilt or shock or outrage... because none of it will be useful... and we have a lot of work to do."

His often counter-intuitive points encourage reconsidering prolific and seemingly solid reasoning. For example, the book considers paper bags may be worse than plastic for the environment or how a Prius may have a larger footprint than a H2 Hummer. (Maybe there's redemption after all for the notorious tank-drivers.) One of the most thoughtful arguments we've come across against green-washing, the gist is that to be sustainable you need to consider more than just the veneer of a product.

Put most poignantly, Shedroff insists, "Don't do things today that make tomorrow worse."

"Design is the Problem" is available through Rosenfeld Media. You get both a digital and a printed copy of the book, and with the discount code WHATMATTERS you get 20 percent off the cost of the book (and all other books) on the site. You can also find it at Amazon.