Until recently, most research on materials was conducted on the waste end of their life-cycle. Geiser argues that the safest and least costly way for companies to avoid environmental problems is to look at materials’ impacts when they are first designed and put into use. There’s lots of good insight, though this is far from a hands-on manual. While Prof. Geiser’s prose veers toward the academic, it presents a cogent argument for rethinking how materials are selected and used in industrial systems.