The Brown Bag - Green Book Lunch and Learn series presented by the Knox County Public Library and the City of Knoxville continues on Wednesday, April 8, at 12 p.m. at a new location: the Market House Room of the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce at #17 Market Square. Elizabeth Eason, Principal Architect at Elizabeth Eason Architecture, will discuss the book Cradle to Cradle, Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough and Michael Braungart.

In this self-described "manifesto for a radically different philosophy and practice of manufacture and environmentalism" McDonough and Braungart reject the established practice of reduce, reuse, and recycle arguing in their provocative, visionary book that this approach perpetuates a one-way, "cradle to grave" manufacturing model that dates to the Industrial Revolution and casts off as much as 90 percent of the materials it uses as waste, much of it toxic. Why not challenge the notion that human industry must inevitably damage the natural world, they ask.

"This is a great book for a broad discussion of sustainability in East Tennessee because we can discuss Cradle to Cradle as it applies to decisions made by anyone that manufactures, specifies, purchases, or consumes products. That's all of us in one way or another," says Eason. "A jolt to me was the discussion about how many of our 'green' products are now less bad, but less bad is not necessarily good. Well, that changes everything! How do we move a society and an economy from producing and purchasing products that are less bad for our environment to products that are actually good for our environment?"

Eason established Elizabeth Eason Architecture, a Knoxville based design studio, in 2003. She has more than 19 years of professional experience working with a wide variety of commercial, civic, non-profit and residential clientele. Her firm specializes in sustainable design of buildings and communities throughout East Tennessee. She is an active board member of Knox Heritage, Chair of the US Green Building Council East Tennessee Chapter, and serves on Mayor Haslam's Energy & Sustainability Task Force as well as Governor Bredesen's Energy Policy Task Force.

The public is invited to join the conversation, but reading the book is optional. Participants may bring their own lunch or order in advance and pick up lunch from a downtown restaurant.

The series will continue on the second Wednesday of each month. On May 13, 2009, Chris Woodhull, Executive Director of Tribe One and Knoxville City Councilman, will discuss The Green Collar Economy. In this book, author Van Jones illustrates how we can invent and invest our way out of the pollution-based gray economy and into a healthy new green economy. According to Jones, this path should be built by a broad coalition deeply rooted in the lives and struggles of ordinary people, so that it has the practical benefit of both cutting energy prices and generating enough work to pull the U.S. economy out of its present death spiral.

For more information, please call Emily Ellis at 215-8723 or Madeleine Weil at 215-2680.