The Natural Capitalism Framework

Engineers and designers using PI, or also commonly called eco-efficiency, use a set of algorithms to find and eliminate waste. Some of the rules are  

Many pumps installed in industrial facilities are oversized for their actual loads. If possible, reduce the pump size during replacement to increase operating efficiency and reduce maintenance costs. If purchased from a wide variety of vendors, the highest efficiency pumps in each size and class are not necessarily more expensive than lower efficiency models. 

Nature continues to serve as the learning laboratory for scientists and engineers regarding products and processes, but nature manufactures, filters, lubricates, cleans, and performs many other services without creating terminal waste. Nature lives where it works. How can we learn more from nature and apply the lessons to how we manufacture, filter, and lubricate, and do it simply, with less cost, and without the burdens of toxicity  

In Nature, every output from one process becomes an input for another. Our ingenuity and technology are helping us mimic nature, and to ask the simple, yet vital question, What would nature do here to address some of our more persistent problems, such as toxic clean up with bioremediation and membrane technology for water filtration. 

In addition to turning to nature to solve discrete engineering problems such as acceleration and pumping, more and more engineers and planners are turning to natural models to solve problems regarding waste management and waste elimination. We humans are the only creatures that create terminal waste and primary products that serve no purpose (other than to fill disposal sites). Nature neatly takes care of its messes. There is no output of a process or system that is not an input to another. It is one big closed loop. Waste is not treated as an externality, but is treated as an asset. 

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