McDonough worked with a Designtex supplier, a Swiss mill called Rohner Textil, to help produce Climatex Lifecycle, a recyclable fabric used for commercial upholstery and wall coverings. McDonough first suggested Rohner remove polyester from a fabric that also contained wool and ramie; the polyester thwarted recycling and composting. Rohner reworked the makeup of the fabric to retain durability and texture.

Next, McDonough wanted to test the dyestuffs Rohner used to make sure they didn't contain carcinogens, mutagens, toxic chemicals or heavy metals. That required getting the chemical companies producing the dyestuffs to open their books. Sixty chemical companies refused to cooperate, but finally Ciba Specialty Chemicals, then known as Ciba-Geigy, agreed to let its dyestuffs be tested. Of the 1,600 tested, Braungart found only 16 that met his standards for environmental purity.

With these, Rohner could make any color but pure black (its chemicals can harm the environment). It took nearly two years, but Rohner was able to come up with Climatex Lifecycle.

While synthetic upholstery fabric starts at $15 a yard and averages closer to $30, Climatex runs $40 to $50. But it's competitive with worsted wool. Climatex accounts for a third of Rohner's approximately $8 million in revenues. Okay, the stuff isn't all McDonough cracks it up to be. He told his San Francisco audience Climatex is "the fabric of choice for airlines."

So far not a single airline uses it. Rohner Chief Executive Albin Kälin says the fabric has cut his waste processing costs. He no longer has to pay to send trimmings from Climatex to be burned at a Swiss-regulated incinerator. Scraps of the all-natural product are made into a feltlike material and sold to a gardening outfit for use as mulch or ground cover. Thus Rohner's waste has become food for plants. This bears out a McDonough slogan: "Waste equals food."

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