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.

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William McDonough, Architect and Co-author of the Cradle to Cradle concept: