Cradle to Cradle Ethos
I first came across the principles of cradle to cradle within this book:
Cradle to Cradle Re-making the way we make things by Michael Braungart and William McDonough.
The description for the book on Amazon is as follows:
Recycling is good , isn’t it?
In this visionary book, chemist Michael Braungart and architect William McDonough challenge this status quo and put forward a manifesto for an intriguing and radically different philosophy of environmentalism.
"Reduce, reuse, recycle”. This is the standard “cradle to grave” manufacturing model dating back to the Industrial Revolution that we still follow today. In this thought-provoking read, the authors propose that instead of minimising waste, we should be striving to create value. This is the essence of Cradle to Cradle: waste need not to exist at all. By providing a framework of redesign of everything from carpets to corporate campuses, McDonough and Braungart make a revolutionary yet viable case for change and for remaking the way we make things.
“The best argument for good design is that it lasts. The best argument for good science is that it deplores waste. I’m bored with guilty and technological illiterate Luddites describing a future of guilt and privation led in caves. There’s an alternative responsible future persuasively offered by Braungart and McDonough. The survival of the planet can be re-stated in terms of stimulus, opportunity and reward. Works for me.”
The Chapters within the book are as follow:
1) A question of design
2) Why being “less bad is no good”
3) Eco-effectiveness
4) Waste equals food
5) Respect diversity
6) Putting eco-effectiveness into practice
I found it an interesting read, and when you reflect on it, to be honest a lot of it is just common sense. Unfortunately we have fallen into this linear economy cycle where we do produce an enormous amount of product, and as no real thought is given to the products end of life this results in the cradle to grave scenario.
With the cradle to cradle ideology, you look at materials as nutrients, these nutrients are divided into two types, nutrients for nature and technical nutrients. Nutrients for nature can decompose and provide food for nature, technical nutrients, metal for example can be used to produce products that are long lasting, could be re-used, repurposed or as a last resort recycled.
The book touches on and highlights many areas and some real case scenarios, so if the subject intrigues, I would recommend a read. But one area it touches on is packaging, packaging now is massive especially with the huge increase in home deliveries. But long before online ordering there are so many products that come in some form of packaging that are not biodegradable or recyclable. The question raised is that do we need to have packaging that lasts for decades or longer for say a food product that has a very short lifespan? As an online retailer Aardelia will give this area it’s warranted consideration, an example of such packaging is farmed seaweed, great at CO2 absorption and biodegradable.
Cradle To Cradle does have its own certification, C2C certification focusses on materials and products, their design, chemicals etc. There are four levels of achievement; Bronze, Silver, Gold & Platinum, you can find out more about C2C and accreditation on their site.
For accreditation the five requirement categories are as follows:
Material Health – Chemicals and materials used in the product are selected to prioritize the protection of human health and the environment, generating a positive impact on the quality of materials available for future use and cycling.
Product Circularity – Products are intentionally designed for their next use and are actively cycled in their intended cycling pathway(s).
Clean Air & Climate Protection – Product manufacturing results in a positive impact on air quality, the renewable energy supply, and the balance of climate changing greenhouse gases.
Water & Soil Stewardship – Water and soil are treated as precious and shared resources. Watersheds and soil ecosystems are protected, and clean water and healthy soils are available to people and all other organisms.
Social Fairness – Companies are committed to upholding human rights and applying fair and equitable business practices.
At Aardelia we can only have a minuscule impact, it’s barely worth it in the scheme of things, but change will only come about from consumer habits and demands. So if we do start to give a little more thought as to what we purchase and what’s going to happen to it when we’ve finished with it, then maybe manufacturers producing on vast scale may be more considerate in their design choices.
A pet hate of mine is a non stick coated frying pan, I have had numerous over the years with some very expensive ones. Eventually they will start to fail, their coating doesn’t work as well, they don’t clean up as they used too and once the coating starts to come off it’s time to ditch the pan. Unfortunately due to the chemical coating, unless it can be removed, the metal is non recyclable. If it can’t easily be removed, which will be in the vast majority of cases, the pan is burned and the ash goes to landfill and we have then lost that precious piece of technical nutrient, that metal is now lost forever for what may have been a couple of years use.
So a little bit more thought into product design, some thought on our part with our next purchases and we can all contribute in cutting down on unnecessary waste through our products and packaging.