Ready for a Cradle to Cradle revolution?

Future products and buildings will be designed according to Cradle to Cradle principles where all elements are regarded as nutrients circulating in healthy safe metabolisms according to architect William McDonough. If the planet is to handle our current patterns of consumerism, we must rethink the way we produce and consume. In part by being inspired by nature’s biological metabolism and by insisting on the ‘natural solution’ as the only sustainable solution.

On Thursday 7 May, William McDonough - one of the Cradle to Cradle founders - was in Copenhagen to receive the Rockwool Price 2009. In relation to the prize-giving, he held a very well attended public lecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts' School of Architecture, which was commented on by a panel consisting of Nille Juul Sørensen (Associate Director at Arup), Lone Wiggers (Architect and Partner of C. F. Møller), Steen Gade (a member of the Danish Parliament), Martin Manthorpe (the Director for strategy and development at NCC), and Eelco van Heel (CEO of Rockwool International). The panel was asked to comment on how Cradle to Cradle thinking can be implemented in a Danish context.

How do you start a Cradle to Cradle revolution? Is it the market which must provide a demand for Cradle to Cradle products first? Or is it the duty of architects, construction companies and manufacturers to ‘push’ in order to create a Cradle to Cradle consumer need? This was one of many interesting discussions in the panel debate.

”The interesting thing is that Cradle to Cradle production is good business,” Nille Sørensen from Arup commented. “To manufacturers and construction companies there is money to save when you use what was formerly regarded as waste in continuous or new cycles of production. Furthermore, it is healthier to the environment and consumers.”

McDonough supplements this statement with examples and figures from major international companies which show that reorganization to Cradle to Cradle production gives a profit at the bottom line. A profit which can be directed towards research, innovation and branding of the company as a frontrunner within sustainable production.

But is legislation in Denmark ready to stand behind a Cradle to Cradle revolution? And it is altogether possible to legislate that the way in which we produce, renovate and build must live up to Cradle to Cradle principles? The answer is no. It is only possible for the State to follow a political trail that endorses Cradle to Cradle thinking and principles.

This does not stop William McDonough. On the contrary. “If you need legislation, it’s because you have a bad design,” he says. ”Legislation does not provide flexibility. Regulation kills innovation. The need for Cradle to Cradle products must start somewhere else; by manufacturers and consumers realising that the natural solution is the only solution.” However, he points out that political support and leadership – both from the State and private enterprises – is crucial if we are to start a new design revolution.

Cradle to Cradle offers a framework for the celebration of abundance. It is not about restrictions and raised fingers but about rethinking production and creating sustainable solutions which benefit the environment and ourselves.
William McDonough