William McDonough

William McDonough's popular book

A lot of people talk about changing the world and making it a better place, but we don’t always see them actually doing what they say and causing the change that they say they will. The man I’m going to talk about has caused change all over the world and is making a huge difference world wide. His name is William McDonough, and is an architect, designer and the author of the widely-popular "Cradle To Cradle." He is my hero.

The work that he has done in the creation of goods and services that generate ecological, social and economic value, shows his will to change the world and to change the path in which we humans are progressing. He is so set to change our environment that even his book was not printed on conventional paper, but on Durabook, synthetic, waterproof "paper" that is largely polypropylene film. William McDonough spent most of his childhood in Tokyo, where he started to build his beliefs. His parents were always eco-friendly people, and when he was a child, his parents used to buy him candy wrapped in rice paper. If the paper was clean, he could eat it with the candy. If it wasn't, he'd peel off the rice paper and throw it away. By the next rain, the paper had dissolved and returned to the soil.

William McDonough (www.harrywalker.com)

My hero has an enormous impact on the world today, as he is tackling one of the most important issues of modern-time, climate change and product scarcity. We humans are using products that we have (both natural and man-made) faster than they can be replaced, causing them to become scarce and causing the prices of nearly everything to rise. I think that everyone can relate to this, as we all have to go through these issues, and in some way, whether faint or strong, it will affect you and your way of life at some point. Even now you can see product scarcity is a problem. Have you noticed that the prices for almost everything are going up? They are, and it is causing chaos all over the world. My hero is fighting to stop this chaos by creating products that have a cradle-to-cradle design, whose materials are circulated in closed loops, instead of designing cradle-to-grave products, dumped in landfills at the end of their "life." Maintaining materials in closed loops maximizes material value without damaging ecosystems.

I chose William McDonough as my hero because most of the heroes that I hear about have dedicated their lives to helping a certain group of people with their difficulties and problems, while my hero is fighting for a cause that everyone has to go through. Everyone will benefit from his hard work and ceaseless efforts to save our planet, including the earth itself. I hope to someday be like him and to help restore the environment to its natural state. I also hope that I will someday be a part of his cause.

I learnt from my hero that it’s now or never. You have to take actions that benefit the environment or accept the responsibility and guilt that comes with laziness and ignorance. I hope that more people will take action like my hero and will begin to realize the magnitude of the issue that we are faced with, and that he is trying to confront and hopefully someday end. I know I’m going to do my part, what are you going to do?