‘This is a wonderful book that should be on the desk of every architect and planner. It shows how

2 Embodied waste analysis
Embodied waste analysis would include embodied materials as well as energy and water. Embodied 
waste (the converse of efficiency) would be aimed primarily at making resource transfers more visible 
[Chapter 14]. Those who would take this view of waste would aim beyond reducing cumulative waste, 
increasing efficiency or increasing the amount of the tree embodied in final products. Metaphorically 
speaking, embodied waste is the hole in the doughnut. Figure 6 depicts the timber captured in 
finished products (the doughnut) to that which is wasted or ‘down-cycled’ in the production of a 
timber product (the doughnut hole). One can reduce the size of the hole, or turn the donut holes into 
positives. In other words, we can have our doughnut and eat it too. The assessment would consider 
the life span of the resource, not just the product – the time it takes to replace the trees. In the case 
of timber, then, embodied waste analysis might take into account:
•
Timber volume
• 
Percentage of the forest captured in permanent products 
• 
Rotation period or replacement time of the trees
• 
Public costs entailed in forest management and regrowth
• 
Life span of the products 
While we know that the preservation and enhancement of the ecological base is essential to achieve 
sustainability, we largely ignore it. We have not acquired the data or the processing tools to measure 
it. Instead of trying to model nature (which again is impossible), we can use nature as a model.
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But we should also try to ensure that the product purpose is also ecologically responsible. We do 
not need to wait for data and computer programs in order to consider the end use of the product.
Embodied waste analysis would only look at the trees as a resource. It would not determine the 
highest ecological use of the timber, or weigh in the re-generation time and space required to recover 
the ecosystems from which the timber was extracted. Therefore, embodied waste would constitute 
only a subset of the ecological waste.