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Two assumptions lie at the heart of many supposedly ''green'' policies: (1) industry is bad and we need to make it less bad; and (2) consumption is bad and we need to do less of it. These assumptions turn the quest for sustainability into something entirely negative: damage limitation and guilt reduction. But sustainability can and should be a positive quest: a celebration of the joys of consumption and an opportunity for innovation and growth as well as a determination to eliminate waste and maintain the quality and level of available resources. To see how to do this, we need to learn from nature. Nature is supremely profligate yet never wastes anything. Instead, it turns every ''output'' into an ''input'' of a new or different process. Every product and every process needs to be designed from a ''cradle to cradle'' perspective. They should create either ''biological nutrients'' that are biodegradable and can become a nutrient for other parts of the eco-system or ''technical nutrients'' that can be used again and again in a ''closed loop''.