In practice
Cradle to Cradle is gaining more and more ground. Michael Braungart and William McDonough are receiving requests from all over the world to apply their Cradle to Cradle principle to urban development, to the fitting out or organisation of factory sites and production processes and the design of new materials suitable for biological and technical metabolisms. Their clients include the Ford Motor Company, Nike, Herman Miller Inc., BASF, DesignTex, Pendleton, Volvo, the city of Chicago and in the Netherlands, the province of Limburg and Unilever.
Radical reversal?
Braungart and McDonough are radical when it comes to redesigning products and processes. And yet they realise that the transformation to an eco-effective vision cannot be achieved overnight. The process is accompanied by trial and error. 'A great deal of time, effort, money and creativity need to be invested in all sorts of areas,' Braungart admits. ’When the choice is consistently between the frying pan and the fire, the chooser is apt to feel helpless and frustrated, which is why a more profound approach to redesign is critical. But in the meantime, there are ways to do the best with what we have, to make better choices'.
Completed projects
The projects that Braungart and McDonough have already completed show how they have managed to do the best with what they have and to make better choices.
The American edition
Take for instance the original American version of Cradle to Cradle. Instead of paper, they used a polymer, about which they wrote:
‘Polymers […] are infinitely recyclable at the same level of quality – [and] have been designed with their future life foremost in mind rather than as an awkward afterthought. This 'paper' doesn’t require cutting down trees or leaching chlorine into waterways. The inks are non-toxic and can be washed off the polymer with a simple and safe chemical process or an extremely hot water bath, from either of which they can be recovered and reused. The cover is made from a heavier grade of the same polymers as the rest of the book, and the glues are made of compatible ingredients, so that once the materials are no longer needed in their present form, the entire book can be reclaimed by the publishing industry in a simple one-step recycling process.’
The 'Rouge'
Another example is the River Rouge project. In 1999, William Clay Ford Jr., chairman of the Ford Motor Company and great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford, brought William McDonough in to help with the refurbishment of River Rouge, Ford’s enormous car plant in Dearborn in the state of Michigan and an icon of the first Industrial Revolution. This complex was to be refurbished at a cost of 2 billion dollars and converted into an icon of the next industrial revolution.
The factory buildings were antiquated. The factory infrastructure had deteriorated over the years and the technology was pretty out of date. Decades of production processes had taken their toll on the soil and the water. Large parts of the site had become polluted – an unusable, desolate industrial estate.
The Ford Motor Company could have easily followed in its competitors’ footsteps: close the site, erect a fence around it and build a new plant elsewhere where the land was clean, cheap and easy to develop. But instead, the company devoted itself to maintaining the production process at the Rouge.
In 1999, William Clay Ford Jr. went a step further. He looked at the rusting pipes and the piles of waste and took up the challenge to restore the Rouge to a liveable area. Instead of leaving the old rubbish behind and starting afresh somewhere else, Ford decided that he would have to position his company as a responsible ‘inhabitant of the earth’. He wanted to create a plant site where the children of Ford employees could play safely, just as in the old days.
The new design for the plant is a visible reflection of Ford’s involvement in social equality, ecology and economic results. The company understands that a pleasant place to work is important if you want to attract creative, versatile and productive staff. The Ford team was immediately convinced after visiting Herman Miller’s factory in the city of Michigan, which William McDonough’s firm of architects had designed.
Ford views River Rouge as a laboratory where it can test ideas that the company hopes to translate into a new way of designing for its global production. The work at River Rouge has already led to a reassessment of other Ford plants, where windmills and solar collectors can be cost-effective when viewed as products of service within the total energy package.
Ford has chosen to position itself as a true ‘inhabitant of the earth’ in every respect. That decision was followed by local decisions that are, where necessary, applied and adjusted elsewhere and continually reviewed and refined. This has brought about a comprehensive change process that will ultimately comprise every aspect of the products they make, how they are made, brought onto the market, sold and recycled. A redesigned car plant can thus completely transform our concept of a car. It will take time for such an enormous industry with such a complex infrastructure to change, but we might perhaps eventually see the building of a new disassembly plant on the site of the first modern assembly plant.
For more information about the projects Braungart and McDonough have worked on, visit www.mbdc.com, www.epea.com, www.mcdonoughpartners.com, www.mcdonough.com and www.braungart.com.
