Cradle to Cradle: what if we think about the entire life cycle of...

How thinking about a product’s entire life cycle is changing the way new products are designed

When a new pair of shoes, a desk chair, or even an envelope are designed, often the creators try to imagine every conceivable use and situation it might encounter in its life. But, what about afterwards? What happens once you've worn out the shoes, broken the chair and ripped open the envelope?

Vision for the future
That's where "cradle to cradle" or C2C design comes in. The concept evolved in the 1990s after architect William McDonough and German chemist Michael Braungart looked at the difference between how humans and nature create things.
They duo quickly realized nature creates no waste. In fact, one of the tag lines from their research is "Waste Equals Food."

Learning from nature
"What we do is take a leaf out of nature's book," said Ken Alston, CEO of McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC), a consultancy firm created to provide businesses with C2C expertise. "We look at processes in nature that are predominately cyclical. So, when leaves fall off a tree, worms and bugs recycle those leaves back into nutrients that are used by the tree to create more leaves."

Ultimate Recycling
Every product needs the right environment to be recycled. For instance, composters will turn biological food scraps into healthy soil. But, put a car in your composting and it will take forever to break down into something useful for plants and animals.
Looking at this problem lead McDonough and Braungart to realize that are two nutrient cycles: the biological cycle and the technical cycle. The problems occur when the crossover happens. Take plastics as long as it stays in the technical cycle they can be used very effectively, but they make lousy biological nutrients.

Unfit candidates
"Most people only think of recycling as good, but it's only good if it is designed for that," said Alston. "If you recycle something you shouldn't have used in the first place, now you are poisoning the system a second time."
Alston describes how many products were recalled in the past few years because of unsafe levels of lead. Lead should never have been used in the first place in those materials.

Choosing the right material
Using the right materials ensures that the recycled material is of the same quality as the original product. C2C design does not believe in "downcycling", where a product is recycled into something less worthy. That means shoes don't get turned into tarmac, they get turned back into shoes.

C2C Certification
A huge component of MBDC's work is helping companies choose safe materials and design products with the end of its life and rebirth in mind.
For example, think of a desk chair. Many desk chairs are designed very well to sustain the kind of abuse an officer worker inflicts on them. However, when the chair is discarded they are almost impossible to be broken down into parts that can be recycled.

MBDC has worked with several chair manufacturers to design chairs that not only stand up to the rigors of an office but can also be taken apart in a few minutes with simple household tools for recycling.
Companies building sustainable and recyclable products with the help of MBDC are given a ranking and certification. There is a wide variety of products available at that can be viewed on the MBDC's certification website, everything from diaper liners to carpets, and whiteboards to U.S. Postal Service envelopes.

End of life cycle restructuring
But, while many companies begin to seriously re-imagine their products to be more sustainable, Alston notes that there is one crucial part missing in the cycle: the return mechanism.
"We have an incredible distribution loop. We can get a product around the world to our city and to our homes, but where's the reverse side of that? What do we do with packaging or washing machines to be recycled and turned into new products? We need to start looking at the infrastructure as well as the product."

Read the book
For more sustainable design for the future, check out McDonough and Braungart's book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. And, if you notice the book looks a little funny that's because it is isn't made of paper. Instead it is made of plastic resins that make the book more durable and waterproof and can be perfectly recycled in the technical nutrient cycle.

Written by:  Graeme Stemp-Morlock

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Posted by: saverio manzo

Business consulting in Ontario 

Financial well-being advice


Cheap car insurance quotes and advice in Ontario. Save now on car insurance