- Bill Gates: "How we can cut carbon emissions by using less stuff." source ↗
A 2011 engineering analysis by Julian Allwood and Jonathan Cullen of Cambridge University, published by the UK Energy Research Centre. It asks a concrete question: can the world reduce its carbon emissions by using less material — steel, aluminium, cement, paper, and plastic — rather than relying solely on cleaner energy? The answer is worked through each material's production chain, identifying where energy is consumed and where efficiency can realistically be improved.
Gates summarised it as "how we can cut carbon emissions by using less stuff." For founders in manufacturing, construction, or any business that buys physical materials, the book's value is in showing that decarbonisation is not just an energy problem — it is a material problem with tractable engineering solutions already available.
The method is the message: Allwood and Cullen map every tonne of material from mine to finished product, measure the energy at each step, and rank interventions by their actual carbon savings rather than their rhetorical appeal. A founder running a hardware or infrastructure business should read this as a catalogue of cost-effective, technology-ready changes that can be made inside existing supply chains, without waiting for breakthrough inventions or carbon taxes.