Cradle to Cradle in a nutshell
Welcome to a world of abundance
In Cradle to Cradle, Braungart and McDonough sketch a world of abundance and view mankind in a positive light. In their view, current environmental policy is based too often on guilt management, seeing a reduction in consumption and minimising production as the main answer. In the philosophy of the C2C cycle everyone can produce and consume to their heart’s content.
En route to ‘perpetuity’
The authors want to create a natural climate that produces ‘perpetuity’. If people, just like ants, learn to convert all the materials they consume into food cycles, the problems of over-population and depleting resources will be eliminated.
Cradle to Cradle in a nutshell
Expounding their philosophy, the authors start by addressing product design, because C2C can only be achieved if, as early as the concept and design phase, account is taken of biological and technical metabolisms by putting Design for Reincarnation at its heart and by driving out the harmful effects on the environment caused by ‘end-of-pipe’ technology.
In the second chapter they put forward the idea that only a radical reorganisation of production processes forms a guarantee for the implementation of the C2C principle. In so doing, they indicate that a ‘less bad’ way of operating and producing is not an option, because this leads to downcycling instead of the upcycling that C2C has in mind.
Eco-efficiency has to be replaced by eco-effectiveness. The authors expound their philosophy on ‘waste = food’ and call on consumers to constantly ask themselves three questions: Is a product edible? Can it be recycled? Or can it be used as fuel to generate energy?
They call for more respect and attention to biodiversity to strengthen natural systems and they call on industry to follow nature by imitating these natural systems in endless biological and technical metabolisms.
In the last chapter, Braungart and McDonough present the ‘Five guiding principles’ that form the basis for the C2C principle. Cradle to Cradle is a clearly constructed vision, interspersed with dozens of practical examples that put the C2C principle across powerfully and help to clarify it for a wide audience.
