Thursday

The Cradle to Cradle Mindset ::.


By Sarah Fister Gale
Sustainable product design has moved well past the advent of corn-based candy wrappers and toothbrushes made from recycled yogurt cups. Today's manufacturers are embracing Cradle to Cradle design (C2C), an environmentally intelligent sustainable design methodology that has been applied to everything from polyester cloth to foam core insulation and ergonomic office chairs to mailing envelopes.

"Cradle to cradle is about the merging of design and chemistry," says Jay Bolus, vice president of technical operations for McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC), a private consulting and C2C certification firm in Charlottesville, Va.

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cradle-to-cradle ::.

CRADLE-TO-CRADLE
A phrase invented by Walter R. Stahel in the 1970s and popularized by William McDonough and Michael Braungart in their 2002 book of the same name. This framework seeks to create production techniques that are not just efficient but are essentially waste free. In cradle-to-cradle production all material inputs and outputs are seen either as technical or biological nutrients. Technical nutrients can be recycled or reused with no loss of quality and biological nutrients composted or consumed. By contrast cradle to grave refers to a company taking responsibility for the disposal of goods it has produced, but not necessarily putting products’ constituent components back into service.


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