This document discusses the Cradle to Cradle design paradigm and its advantages over the traditional Cradle to Grave model. It promotes designing products and materials so that they provide nutrition in both their technical and biological cycles, and can be reused or recycled in continuous loops. Examples are given of companies applying Cradle to Cradle principles through designing biodegradable and recyclable products, as well as architecture that mimics nature. The goal is to create designs that are beneficial rather than burdensome to the environment.

1. CRADLE TO CRADLE® DESIGN
HUMAN HABITAT 2010
Prof. Dr. Michael Braungart
Lisbon, Portugal
May 3rd, 2010

2. WHAT KIND OF COUNTRY DO YOU WANT PORTUGAL TO BE?
LIKE THIS... ...OR LIKE THIS?

3. THE NETHERLANDS: A CRADLE TO CRADLE ® HOTSPOT
The Dutch Vision:
To be a Cradle to Cradle Country

4. The International Center
for Sustainable Excellence
A2 Tunnel Maastricht

5. Partners in the
Netherlands

6. CRADLE TO CRADLE® IN DENMARK
Samsø & Anholt, C2C-Islands
EU-project around water, energy and materials
Danish Industry
Industry Cluster investigating C2C
Center for Samfundansvar
Developing CSR tools for small and medium
companies that includes C2C
Engineering companies
COWI & Rambøll promoting C2C
Denmark Louisiana
Museum of modern art is doing an exhibition
on C2C arckitecture

7. CRADLE TO GRAVE DESIGN PARADIGM

8. ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTERS

10. ALBATROSSES ON THE ISLAND
OF MIDWAY, CENTRAL
PACIFIC

11. OFF-GASSING OF WALLPAPER

12. OFF-GASSING OF CARPET (SYNTHETIC)

13. OFF-GASSING OF CARPET (NATURAL FIBRE)

14. COST OF POOR INDOOR AIR QUALITY
. Over 40% of children have allergies.
Several decades ago, only 2 – 3% did
• Every third person in the western world has allergy
problems.
• Allergies cost the U.S. health care system $18 billion
annually
SOLUTION: design materials and products for indoor use
Source: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

15. INDOOR AIR QUALITY FOR OUR CHILDREN

23. ARE WE TOO MANY?
Phasing out the human race by voluntarily ceasing to breed will
allow Earth's biosphere to return to good health. Crowded
conditions and resource shortages will improve as we become
less dense.
Voluntary Human Extinction Movement

24. ARE WE TOO MANY?
“No goal is more crucial to healing the
global environment than stabilizing
human population.”
Al Gore

25. ARE THEY TOO MANY?

26. THE BIOMASS OF ANTS IS FOUR TIMES GREATER THAN THAT OF HUMANS

27. Eco-Efficiency
Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic

28. Eco-effectiveness
Eco-efficiency

29. CRADLE TO GRAVE : TARGET IS ZERO
REDUCTION,
AVOIDANCE,
MINIMIZATION,
PREVENTION.
ECO-EFFICIENCY

30. CRADLE TO CRADLE ® : THE GOAL IS QUALITY
ECO-EFFECTIVENESS
DEFINE,
INCREASE,
SUPPORT,
OPTIMIZE
ECO-EFFICIENCY

31. PROGRESS OF QUALITY FROM CRADLE TO CRADLE ® WITH TIME
ECO-EFFECTIVENESS
WHERE
CLIENTS AND
SUPPLIERS
REGARD
THEMSELVES AS
PARTNERS,
AIMING FOR THE
HIGHEST
QUALITIES

32. IDENTIFY THE BEST: ABC-X CATEGORIZATION
OPTIMAL
OPTIMIZING
TOLERABLE
NOT ACCEPTABLE
NOT
CHARACTERIZED

33. Censor
ed in A
merica
n Stan
dard
„TOTAL BEAUTY“

34. CRADLE TO CRADLE®: DOING THE RIGHT THINGS!
DOING THINGS DOING THE
RIGHT RIGHT THINGS

35. CRADLE TO CRADLE® DESIGN PARADIGM
• WASTE EQUALS FOOD
(NUTRIENTS ARE NUTRIENTS)
• USE CURRENT SOLAR INCOME
• CELEBRATE DIVERSITY

36. TRIPLE TOP LINE

37. Biological Technical
Metabolism Metabolism

38. Biological
Nutrient

39. Climatex ® Lifecycle™ and Climatex ® LifeguardFR TM: Biological Nutrient
DISTRIBUTION,
MANUFACTURING RESIDUES
UTILISATION
RESOURCES CONDITIONING
Climatex® Lifecycle™ and Climatex ® LifeguardFR™ are patents and trademarks of Gessner AG, Switzerland

40. KLM - COMPOSTABLE AIRPLANE SEAT PROTOTYPE
Handelsblatt, 16. Juni 2005

41. TRIGEMA BIODEGRADABLE T-SHIRT
MANUFACTURE BIODEGRADE
NEW DIMENSIONS OF
QUALITY FOR
APPAREL GOODS
RECOLLECTION COMPOST - User’s Health
- Safe for the
COTTON Environment

42. Technical
Nutrient

43. DESSO: CRADLE TO CRADLE ® FLOOR COVER

44. NEW ORANGEBOX CERTIFIED ARA CHAIR

45. MIRRA CHAIR- HERMAN MILLER: TECHNICAL NUTRIENT
PRODUCTION PURCHASE AND USE TAKE-BACK
TAKEBACK
REPOLYMERIZATION DISASSEMBLY

46. Bionorica: Building like a tree
Building: BIONORICA NEUMARKT

47. PHOSPHATE RECOVERY

48. BIOMASS NUTRIENT RECYCLING: SEWAGE TREATMENT

49. BEYOND THE LIMITS OF SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE
Eco-effective architecture
• Rematerialization
– Technical and biological cycles
– Integrated with nature‘s
nutrient and energy cycles
• Material chemistry
– Positively defined material
chemistry
– e.g. Climatex and BASF carpet
fiber

50. A2 tunnel Project
Quelle: HeidelbergCement

51. A2 – TUNNEL PROJECT: CRADLE TO CRADLE BUILDING MATERIALS
• Positive Effect from Concrete:
– Fine-Dust capture through absorbsion of Concrete Surface
– Transformation of air pollutants, such as by TioCem Technology
– Fiber Reinforced Concrete from recycled carpet fibers (as an interim
solution for carpet materials)
– Concrete with additional functional properties, such as
• Installing self-illuminating bacteria in concrete surfaces
• Better use of energy by way light reflection on white instead of gray cement

52. GOAL: BUILDINGS LIKE TREES
Heidelberg Cement TioCem premium Concrete
Nitrate monoxide from the surrounding air is being transformed into Nitrate (NO3¯) which is then
being washed down by rain and serves as nutrients to the soil

53. CEMENT AS CARBON STORAGE

54. THE TERMITE WORLD BUILDINGS

55. "The greenest house
is the one that never
gets built.“
— Whit Faulconer, GreenBlue
?

56. BUILDINGS LIKE TREES
CITIES LIKE FORESTS

57. WILLIAM MCDONOUGH: HOUSES LIKE TREES, CITIES LIKE FORESTS
BUILDINGS LIKE TREES
FORD ROUGE CENTER
ADAM JOSEPH SMITH CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES OBERLIN, OH

58. FORD RIVER ROUGE LIVING ROOF DESIGN
XEROFLOR: „RAISED FLORA“

59. ADVANTAGES OF GREEN ROOFTOP
• Green rooftop
– captures rainwater
– reduces energy needs for cooling and heating
– keeps buildings an average 5°C cooler than
bare rooftop buildings
• The plants transform carbon dioxide into
oxygen

60. ECO-EFFECTIVE ARCHITECTURE
• More Impact
– More habitat
– More clean water
– More fresh air
– More pleasure
– More beauty
– More biological diversity
– More fun
• Intelligent Workplace
– Responds to outdoor and
indoor conditions

61. China

62. China will house 400 million people in the next
12 years

63. If brick is used in 174
districts the making of
bricks will take all the soil
and burn all the coal.
Brick is now “illegal”
in these jurisdictions.

64. “We should optimize the economic structure…
[and] advocate an environment friendly way
of production, life and consumption and bring
about a virtuous cycle in both our ecological
and sociological systems…Resolutely
stopping all practices that are detrimental to
nature.”
President Hu Jintao

65. Liuzhou

66. (Existing)

67. (Proposed)

71. Guantang Chuangye Park New Town Master Plan
Farms to the
Rooftops
Location: Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China

72. HERMAN MILLER “GREEN HOUSE” FACTORY

73. ACTIVE HOUSE ARCHITEKTUR

74. ACTIVE HOUSE ARCTITEKTUR

75. SOLAR PANELS: HARVESTING THE SUN
Silicone Doping
Cadmium telluride
Efficiency up to 40%

76. WINDMILLS ON TRANSMISSION TOWERS

77. Stef Kranendijk, Desso
CEO
CEO of Desso
With Cradle to Cradle, Desso is in it for the long haul. It’s a challenging task which
will involve the creation of entirely new products and technologies.
But it’s a task we’re proud to undertake, for the betterment of our products, our
brand, the people and our planet.

78. van Gansewinkel Groep- NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT COMPANY
„For us Cradle to Cradle is not an invention but a
discovery of what our work really is about!
It is so inspirational for our company.“
Ruud Sondag- CEO
van Gansewinkel Groep

81. EXAMPLE OF A CRADLE TO CRADLE ® Platform

83. BENEFICIAL ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT

85. EPEA INTERNATIONALE
UMWELTFORSCHUNG GMBH
TROSTBRÜCKE 4
D-20457 HAMBURG
GERMANY
T. +49 40 43 13 49 0
F. +49 40 43 13 49 49
www.epea.com
Michael Braungart
braungart@epea.com