I should perhaps point out that ideas complementary to Greer's 5-point list here are explored in more technogeeky terms by various writers under the topic of biomimicry -- i.e. where the use of wholly biotic small-scale processes is difficult, say when building locomotives for a national rail system, we can still look hard for ways to retool industrial processes to mimic biotic ones by closing the waste loop, intensifying recycling, etc.

nothing can close the fundamental entropic decline involved in industrial methods.  the transition from ore to metal is irreversible in human-scale time and the energy poured into the process is irrecoverable.  but the amount of waste involved (and Greer writes compellingly and cogently on the "waste economy" as well) could be reduced tenfold, maybe a hundredfold for some processes, thus slowing the entropic leakage...

The difference between theory and practise in practise ...