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Introduction
In 2007 and 2008 the cradle-to-cradle concept took the Netherlands by storm;
something we, working within the Design for Sustainability group at Delft University
of Technology, noticed by an increasing number of inquiries by students, journalists,
companies, industrial designers, NGOs and (local) governments. All showed great
interest in the concept, and were curious about the possibilities of implementation.
Cradle to cradle is positioned by the authors William McDonough and
Michael Braungart as a manifesto for a new approach towards sustainable design: one
which is based on the intelligence of natural systems. For McDonough and Braungart,
this means we should stop drawing power from non-renewable fossil fuels, and turn
towards the sun and other renewable energy sources for our energy supplies. And we
should make all ‘materials of consumption’ become part of either the biological
nutrient cycle or the technological nutrient cycle, meaning that materials should either
be biodegradable to be taken up in a natural cycle at the end of a product’s life, or be
‘upcyclable’, and be reused indefinitely in a technological closed loop system. Their
manifesto is written in a clear and optimistic style and offered for many an alternative
vision to the eco-efficiency approach that has been dominant for years (compliance,
doing more with less, or in McDonough and Braungart’s words: being ‘less bad’).
We observed a remarkable enthusiasm sparked by the cradle-to-cradle
concept, which is drawing new people into the field of design for sustainability. But
we also observed professionals, who have been working in this field for some time,
take a very critical stance. Some consider it the way forward, while others find it
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makes no sense. Among academia cradle-to-cradle is criticized among other things for
not being new (e.g. Kusz, 2006; Bijsterveld, 2008), for having a too limited focus
(e.g. White et al, 2007, p.42; Bijsterveld, 2008), for claiming general applicability, for
celebrating consumption (e.g. Martens and Amelung, 2007) and for their lack of
acknowledgement of day-to-day business reality.
Through the design projects that have since been executed, we have acquired a
body of knowledge and experience while working with cradle-to-cradle in real
business settings, which we feel warrants a scholarly review of the pros and cons of
the concept, from the perspective of industrial designers.
This leads to the central questions of this paper: How can industrial designers
who innovate in a day-to-day business setting implement cradle-to-cradle? And how
does the much-used life cycle analysis method relate to cradle-to-cradle? Are these
two approaches compatible at all?
We will answer this question by analysing and evaluating C2C student design
projects carried out in recent months within our Design for Sustainability group, with
companies such as (among others) Royal Philips Electronics and TNT. Both of these
companies already have a widely acknowledged commitment to sustainability, as is
evident by their ranking in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.
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no need to curb consumerism. Or, one could agree with the vision, without agreeing
that material selection is the first thing to focus on as a business.
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incapable of making us imagine scenarios where coffee machines would become part
of a cradle-to-cradle, eco-effective world. Ehrenfeld (2008) concurs with McDonough
and Braungart, in his plea for a holistic approach towards sustainability:
“Our society is addicted to reductionist ways of solving virtually all our problems. ... Over time, as we
engage more and more in this practice, society’s (as well as individual’s) competence to address the
complicated, messy problems we confront has diminished. Unsustainability is just such a messy
problem. Reductionism will not make it go away.” (Ehrenfeld, 2008, p. 11-12)
In Ehrenfeld’s vision, an LCA would be regarded as a reductionist method.
For industrial designers, however, an LCA is one of the few methods we have that
helps us quantify the environmental impacts of products to some degree, in a more or
less objective way.
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away with the implicit feelings of guilt that seem to pervade much of the writings on
sustainable design and offers a positive, designer-minded vision of the future. And -
another boon for industrial designers - the C2C vision is a rather technological one: as
long as we emulate nature’s principles in our technological systems, we do not need
to change our current lifestyles - on the contrary, we can celebrate these.
Our proposal is to use LCA as an analytical tool to keep track of the main
environmental priorities that should be addressed (and in particular to keep track of
energy consumption during the life cycle as this is more or less ignored by C2C). We
propose to use C2C as the overall framework to give the design a conceptual
direction. The case study described in the next paragraph will illustrate this.
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Figure 1: comparing LCA and C2C (de Clercq, 2008)
Figure 2: LCA of polo shirt. Orange: Energy consumption in kWh; Blue: CO2
emissions in kg (de Clercq, 2008)
The current polo shirt consists of a blend of 60% polyester and 40% cotton. Each shirt
has five polyester buttons. De Clercq assumed the polo shirt would have a lifespan of
two years and would be washed 80 times (on 50 °C average), ironed 80 times and
tumble-dried 40 times.
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Figure 2 shows the outcomes of the LCA of the polo shirt. It is immediately
apparent that the use phase is dominant: the washing, tumble-drying and ironing of
the shirt account for 80% of its total energy impact.
The LCA of the fleece jack and the all-seasons jack have a different outcome: as these
garments are not washed so frequently, the raw materials acquisition and production
phases become dominant (75% and 80% of total energy impact, respectively). The all-
seasons jack in particular takes a lot of energy to produce – this is probably due to its
complicated construction (the jack has 11 zippers, 16 Velcro strips and 15 buttons).
Back to cradle-to-cradle
With the outcomes of the LCA, de Clercq knew which priority areas he had to address
in his redesign of the business uniform. At this point, he decided to revisit the cradle-
to-cradle framework: “The aim of C2C’s eco-effectiveness approach to work towards material
flow metabolisms can be very inspiring within this project’s focus. In the textile industry, where
material losses are high and various forms of waste products are created, effectively redesigning
material flows should be seen as a priority.”
An extensive desk study into life cycle aspects of natural and synthetic fibres and
several creativity sessions led to the final design (shown here, in figure 3, is the
design of the new polo shirt)
The redesign
New components and seamline patterns from sportswear apparel have been integrated
in a polo shirt that fits TNT’s corporate character. The shirt is made of an 80/20 blend
of recycled polyester and organic cotton. For better ventilation, a 100% recycled
polyester fabric is used around the armpits. In order to reduce the impact of the dyeing
process, one main colour is used (instead of two). The new collar eliminates the need
for buttons.
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The blend of 80/20 polyester and organic cotton can be recycled in a closed-
loop process by a company in Japan (Teijin). Teijin’s Eco-Circle program is based on
the intake of worn-out garments that have been produced with Teijin’s own fibres.
Items that are returned to Teijin are shredded, decolorized and granulated before
being re-polymerized into new polyester fibres.
The Eco-Circle program closely aligns with the cradle-to-cradle goal of
creating a closed-loop materials flow (in this case the materials are part of the
technical nutrient cycle).
The higher polyester grade in the polo shirt suits a lower washing temperature:
the shirt is designed to wash at 30 °C. It doesn’t wrinkle and dries quickly,
eliminating the need for ironing and tumble-drying. A second LCA showed a radical
decrease in energy consumption of 74% and CO2 emissions of 68% (based on the
assumption that the shirt is washed at 30 degrees, and is not ironed or tumble dried).
According to De Clercq, the new design can be produced at a slightly lower
cost price, compared to the old polo shirt.
Conclusions
The TNT case shows how LCA and C2C can be used as two complementary
approaches in a design process. Without the C2C vision of closed loop materials
recycling, de Clercq might not have taken his project so far as to suggest collaboration
with the Teijin Eco-Circle program. And without the LCA, de Clercq might not have
understood the importance of the use phase, and the need to address people’s washing
habits through the design of the garments.
1. Reverse logistics
If a company has a system of ‘reverse logistics’ in place, implementing C2C
principles becomes much more realistic and possibly cost-effective (as the TNT case
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has shown). A Dutch company like Océ (copiers and printers) that leases its high-end
copiers might implement C2C principles with relative ease, as it has a 100% return
rate.
But companies without a return system in place should question whether redesigning
their products following a cradle-to-cradle material selection strategy is sensible, if
that product is going to end up in the existing end-of-life systems of landfill and
incineration. A company selling –for instance- consumer handbags should probably
first set up a take-back system and find a way to get their customers to bring back old
handbags before it can seriously consider implementing C2C.
The Dutch office furniture company Ahrend has understood this. Having spent
many years on eco-efficiency, the company recently announced its intention to
restructure its operations in accordance with the cradle-to-cradle philosophy (Ahrend,
2009). In January 2009, the company introduced Next Life, which is a new service,
focused on extending the useful life of interior products through refurbishment and
ultimately the re-use of the material.
The challenge of reverse logistics is closely related to a company’s business
model. In the case of Ahrend, the decision to go for Next Life was taken by CEO Jacq
de Bruin, who recently concluded a cooperation agreement with EPEA, the C2C
consultancy of Michael Braungart. Industrial designers are not usually in a position to
enforce such agreements. If they want to be active in the C2C field they should seek
out those companies with a certain amount of influence in their value chain or those
that already have a system of take-back in place.
2. Disassembly
According to McDonough and Braungart, many products are ‘monstrous hybrids’:
inseparable combinations of biological and technical nutrients. For such products to
be re-used or recycled the materials first need to be separated. Design for disassembly
focuses on ease of disassembly, to enable the removal of parts without damage. In the
early 1990’s several researchers developed extensive guidelines for design for
disassembly (for instance Beitz, 1993 and VDI, 1991), indicating that this is an area
where industrial designers can contribute, provided they consider product disassembly
early in the product’s design stage.
3. Recycling / Upcycling
Design for recycling and design for disassembly often go hand in hand. A product that
consists of different (non-compatible) materials will have to be disassembled before
the materials can be recycled. Design for Recycling is often concerned with material
selection (for instance Chen et al, 1993). Developing a product that can be
successfully recycled requires a lot of knowledge and expertise. What recycling
technologies will be available in the future and how must today’s products be
composed to facilitate their future recycling? For designers, this poses a considerable
challenge. A designer will need to collaborate with all parties in the ‘end of life’ value
chain of a product (including the people involved with take-back and recycling), in
order to come up with design concepts that can be recycled – and that still make sense
from an economic and an environmental point of view.
The cradle-to-cradle vision is that products should not merely be recycled, as
this will only postpone their inevitable decline towards landfill or incinerator. Instead,
products should be upcycled, meaning they should be re-processed for use at the same
level of application (i.e. a PET bottle should be upcycled into a new PET bottle, and
not downcycled into a PET sweater). This poses an even greater challenge for Design
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for Recycling, as it requires a very intimate knowledge of material properties and
composition. We have, for instance, a system for indicating the major plastic groups,
which is intended to assist in recycling. However, if the goal is upcycling this
information is insufficient. One cannot simply put all parts marked with PP (for
polypropylene) together and re-process these for use at the same level of application,
as these will differ in grade (i.e. the length of the polymers) and fillers (e.g. colour,
flame retardants, UV blockers).
Therefore, even if a company has control over its products, and can do the
recycling itself, an elaborate materials information system will be needed.
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proud. We can, however, change the course of history. The technologies we need are there. On a global
level, the sun and the deserts present us with major opportunity. We know all energy resources
originate from one source, one masdar [= source, authors note], nuclear fusion from the surface of the
sun.” (Willem-Alexander, 2009)
Willem-Alexander acknowledges the need for a transition towards renewable
energy, but recognises we are still in a pre-transitional phase: “We need the political
will and the right approach to investment for a fundamental transition towards a new
energy system.”
Making the transition towards renewable energy is a societal and political
issue. The logic of McDonough and Braungart may be sound, but in the short term we
are not likely to see major changes in the way businesses power themselves or in the
products they develop. Designers have only very limited influence in making this
transition happen. However, we believe that designers interested in the cradle-to-
cradle concept could start exploring the feasibility of products powered with
renewable energy (such as photovoltaic cells).
1. Inspiration
The cradle-to-cradle concept is a great source of inspiration on a conceptual level.
Both professional industrial designers and students appreciate the positive approach,
the ambition level and the ‘design your way out’ attitude of McDonough and
Braungart. Their C2C framework seems to empower designers. It does away with
‘old’ notions of guilt and restriction, and opens up new horizons for designers to
explore.
Conclusions
We now return to our initial question: how can industrial designers who innovate in a
day-to-day business setting implement cradle-to-cradle? Based on our experiences
with the projects we were involved with, we would like to give the following
recommendations:
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- Industrial designers need to be aware of their level of control. Some decisions can
only be made on a strategic management level, for instance the restructuring of
business operations according to cradle-to-cradle principles. Designers can
however ‘pave the way’, by showing how C2C could make business sense for a
company, as was done in the case of the TNT project described in this paper.
- Industrial designers can use C2C at different levels: during concept development
it is very valuable as an inspirational guide. During materialisation, C2C can be
used to gain a deeper understanding of materials composition and of design for
recycling/ disassembly techniques.
- Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) can and should be used as a complementary tool next
to C2C. Designers should be aware of the limitations of both methods. LCA
outcomes tend to lead designers on a narrow path to eco-efficiency, whereas C2C
tends to overlook a product’s (non-renewable) energy consumption. Designers can
use LCA to assess whether to prioritize energy use, or materials acquisition and
production.
Any organisation, especially those that have developed extensive experience with the
eco-efficiency approach, can gain a lot by doing a cradle-to-cradle design pilot. It will
trigger many questions about current practice, and as such, may work refreshingly
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reflective. And in some cases the cradle-to-cradle concept can substitute the eco-
efficiency approach, and create true business value.
References
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[internet] Available at:
http://www.ahrend.nl/smartsite.dws?language=EN&ch=COM&id=88401
Accessed: 28 February 2009
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4(1)
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