Cradle to Cradle

Image above from MBDC, LLC. (2022, 1 februari). How to get your product Cradle to Cradle certified® – MBDC. MBDC. 

The Cradle to Cradle (C2C) concept takes natural systems as a source of inspiration and argues that our human society should transition to regenerative design by eliminating the concept of waste, regarding all waste as food for new cycles of use. All energy must also be clean and renewable, like the natural cycles of sunlight, wind and water.  The Cradle to Cradle concept was made popular by architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart, when they published the book “Cradle to Cradle: remaking the way we make things” (McDonough & Braungart, 2002). 

Usage

Cradle to cradle (C2C) is not a method with specific activities, it’s a mindset to consider while doing normal design activities.  At its core, C2C has a radical proposition: instead of doing less bad by creating efficient products and processes (as suggested by ecodesign), we should focus on doing good from the outset. This is “regenerative design”. The three guiding C2C principles are: 1. Use current solar income (renewable energy). 2. Waste equals food (materials are nutrients that feed biological or technological cycles). 3. Respect diversity (design for local contexts and variations).

 

Benefits

  • Easy to use, philosophical outlook to use in existing design activities.
  • Drives you to design for material recovery across many product life cycles.
  • Drives you to select materials are safe for humans and environment, avoiding toxicity hazards.
  • Drives you to design for net-positive impacts, for regeneration.

 

Limitations/Risks

  • While the waste equals food and net positive principles are inspiring, they are very difficult for designers to realise this in practice. The recycling of plastics or paper, for instance, almost always results in degradation of material properties, which means that some form of downcycling over time is inevitable.
  • The idea of regenerative design also tends to misguide designers into thinking that renewable materials can and should always be absorbed in the biosphere: many renewable materials are dyed, coated, mixed, blended, or otherwise treated in ways which can make them resistant to decomposition in the biological cycle. 
  • C2C’s basic tenet, that as long as a product fulfils the C2C criteria, there is no limit to how much of it we can have, is often contested. This is sometimes referred to as the ‘abundance’ argument. Its attraction is the idea of no limits (endless consumption!), as opposed to the rather pessimistic ‘limits to growth’ argument. 

Exercise

Resources