The book opens with a hypothetical, domestic scene: “You have finally found the time to sink into your favorite armchair, relax, and pick up a book. Your daughter uses a computer in the next room while the baby crawls on the carpet and plays with a pile of colorful plastic toys. It certainly feels, at this moment, as if all is well” (3). The authors breakdown the various manmade products in this scene—the armchair, the computer, the carpet, the plastic toys—and describes the ways in which they are comprised of toxic, harmful materials. For example, the computer: “That computer your child is using—did you know that it contains more than a thousand different kinds of materials, including toxic gases, toxic metals (such as cadmium, lead, and mercury), acids, plastics, chlorinated and brominated substances, and other additives?” (3). With our current industrial processes, toxins are built into virtually all of the products that surround us, which is hazardous to ourselves and the environment. The book calls for a “new industrial revolution” (6). The way we manufacture and the way we think about environmentalism needs a radical change.

Each author describes their professional background: McDonough is an architect by trade, and Braungart is a chemist.