Cradle to Cradle (C2C) is a design philosophy and product certification, developed by McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC), that credibly measures achievement in environmentally-intelligent design and demonstrates company’s commitment to preserving a healthy ecosystem.
This new C2C conception goes beyond retrofitting industrial systems to reduce their harm. Conventional approaches to sustainability often make the efficient use of energy and materials their ultimate goal. While this can be a useful transitional strategy, it tends to reduce negative impacts without transforming harmful activity.
Cradle-to-Cradle design, on the other hand, offers a framework in which the effective, regenerative cycles of nature provide models for wholly positive human designs. Within this framework we can create economies that purify air, land, and water, that rely on current solar income and generate no toxic waste, that use safe, healthful materials that replenish the earth or can be perpetually recycled, and that yield benefits that enhance all life.
The C2C Certification itself covers five categories:
using environmentally safe and healthy materials;
design for product reutilization: repeated recycling or safe decomposing into the environment;
the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency;
efficient use of water in production;
instituting strategies for social responsibility.
All Shikkui products have been certified with Cradle to Cradle at Silver level.
William McDonough, Architect and Co-author of the Cradle to Cradle concept [2:56 min]
Waste = Food
An inspiring documentary on the Cradle to Cradle design concept of the chemist Michael Braungart and the architect William McDonough.
Winner of the Silver Dragon at the Beijing International Science Film Festival 2006.
OUTLINE: Man is the only creature that produces landfills. Natural resources are being depleted on a rapid scale while production and consumption are rising in nations like China and India. The waste production world wide is enormous and if we do not do anything we will soon have turned all our resources into one big messy landfill. But there is hope. The German chemist, Michael Braungart, and the American designer-architect William McDonough are fundamentally changing the way we produce and build. If waste would become food for the biosphere or the technosphere (all the technical products we make), production and consumption could become beneficial for the planet.
A design and production concept that they call Cradle to Cradle. A concept that is seen as the next industrial revolution.
Design every product in such a way that at the end of its lifecycle the component materials become a new resource.
Design buildings in such a way that they produce energy and become a friend to the environment.
Large companies like Ford and Nike are working with McDonough and Braungart to change their production facilities and their products. They realize that economically seen waste is destruction of capital. You make something with no value. Based on their ideas the Chinese government is working towards a circular economy where Waste = Food. An amazing story that will definitely change your way of thinking about production and consumption.
