Expo ‘97 Audience Gets A Big Dose Of ‘What If?’ ‘Sustainable Design’ Expert Mcdonough Preaches Virtues Of Recycling, Quality Of Life

What if you could take your worn-out Nikes to a shoe store and get credit toward a new pair?

And what if it wasn’t just a marketing gimmick - what if Nike actually saved money by recycling used shoe materials into new pairs, and passed some of the savings along to customers?

“What ifs” are what designer William McDonough specializes in. That’s why Nike this week joined an already impressive list of corporate and government clients, from Wal-Mart to the White House, who have sought McDonough’s advice for reducing waste, improving quality of life and, ideally, he says, having fun in the process.

McDonough, dean of the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture and, according to Vice President Al Gore, the “mastermind of sustainable design,” stopped by Spokane on Wednesday to deliver the keynote address at Expo ‘97, an environmental forum for business.

The three-day conference and trade show attracted 2,000 participants from around the Northwest and beyond, ranging from one-person businesses operating out of homes to some of the area’s largest employers.

Several hundred of those participants listened intently as McDonough served up an entertaining mix of favorite anecdotes, pet projects and visionary alternatives to the world’s current consumptive ways.

McDonough told the story of how, in 1831, poet Ralph Waldo Emerson traveled to Europe aboard a sailboat - “a solar-powered, recyclable vehicle operated by craftsman working in the open air” - and returned aboard a steamship - “a rust bucket spilling oil slicks on the water, spewing smoke into the air, and operated by people working in darkness, shoveling fossil fuels in the mouth of a boiler.”

“Well, guess what? We’re still designing steamships,” McDonough warned, speaking figuratively. “… We’re engaged in a massive experiment that we have no idea how to stop.”

McDonough’s solution: “A new design based on ethical principles.”

The world no longer can afford to make decisions guided solely by economic considerations, McDonough said. Nor can it settle for choices that weigh the economy only against social equity.

“We need to find a balance between economy, equity and ecology,” he observed. “We need to find our rightful, meaningful place within nature.”

That means moving beyond the design principle of the first Industrial Revolution, which McDonough characterized as “If brute force doesn’t work, you’re not using enough of it.”

The next industrial revolution requires ideas that take into account future generations - ideas such as McDonough’s energy-efficient Wal-Mart store in Lawrence, Kan., that, once its retail-outlet days are over, can easily be converted into a mixed-use residential community.

“Today, the only questions we ask are ‘Can I afford it? Does it work? Do I like it?’

“We need to add three new ones: Is it ecologically intelligent? Is it just? Is it fun?”

McDonough’s trademark designs include use of readily available local materials and natural lighting, as well as more unconventional features, such as grass growing on rooftops.

Besides offering architectural services, he helps clients reduce waste, hence his new contract with Nike.

On Wednesday, McDonough also tested his marketing skills.

“How’s this for a new slogan?” he asked his Spokane audience. “Wear your old shoes in. Wear your new shoes out. There is no finish line. Nike.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo