CAMBRIDGE, — The manufacturing model of the prototypical company of the 20th Century, based on the assumption of limitless resources and sinks into which to dump wastes and products at the end of their useful lives, is a preamble to environmental collapse, Mike Bertolucci says.

Bertolucci, President Emeritus of Interface Research Corporation argues in Turning the Ship, a five-week online dialogue convened by the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and The Clark Group (and hosted by GreenBiz.com here), that with the fight against global warming rapidly picking up pace, it's time to re-imagine the entire manufacturing process, to keep companies viable for decades to come.

Bertolucci describes how a sustainable manufacturing system would look, noting:

• It would generate no more waste or emissions than could be rapidly assimilated in nature and would therefore not create toxic pools doing harm to the biosphere.
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• It would not be extractive of limited and finite resources for its material and energy demands to produce its products and grow at a rate compatible with the demands of its shareholders and environment within which it operates.
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• It would be cyclic in all its material flows, recycling its own products and others compatible with its business requirements, and it would drive its manufacturing processes with renewable energy, either directly sourced or supported through green energy offset programs, also called renewable energy credits.

Bertolucci's full essay, "The Quest for a Manufacturing Model that is Sustainable," is posted on TurningTheShip.