Young Professionals - Leading the Change

Cradle to Cradle Design

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This is a place where individuals and groups can be in communication around imagining and designing what a good future would be like, rather than one trying to be a little less bad.

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Bill McDonough is the only individual to receive the US Presidential Award for Sustainable Development. He has two.
After receiving the first one, the press came up to him and asked 'Oh, Mr Sustainable, what does it all mean?' to which he replied:
'Well actually, I'm not that interested in Sustainability. If its just the line between degradation and regeneration, if its just a kind of maintenance, it's not that interesting to me as a designer'.

Michael Braungart has recently been out to New Zealand for the Better By Design Summit, speaking to 300 executives about the future beyond sustainability and trying to be less bad

The old conversation about trying to be more efficient, use less fossil fuel energy, produce less waste, put fewer toxins, carcinogens into our products, clothes, buildings, air, water and soil and overall trying to be less bad is dying. These are all important strategies that have got us this far but they only serve to slow our current unsustainable trajectory down.
I'm curious about where the new strategy is being born.

As some introduction to Cradle to Cradle:

Bill McDonough has a great 20min TED talk that Nick has already posted up in intersect's videos

Michael Braungart's talk at the Better By Design Summit. To watch his talk click here.
You can also see media coverage of speakers at the Summit on this google document. Feel free to add others you know of.

I see design as a way of approaching the world rather than a discipline. This forum is therefore open to all.
This is a place to explore these concepts, where we might see them taking hold in NZ.

Click below to see the write up of the Better By Design Summit by the 5 young citizens that Intersect helped get there with the support from Better By Design and Interface Carpets.
Better by Design CEO Summit Intersect Writeup.pdf

Some languaging to explore:
Wordle - Cradle to Cradle Terminology.pdf

Feel free to start discussions on how we design this future.

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Comment by Maibritt Pedersen Zari on November 19, 2009 at 12:13pm: Hello everyone... Just though you might like to know that some work we did for MfE last year has finally been published online by them. Discusses regenerative approaches to the built environment in a NZ context and talks about the differences between these, cradle to cradle and eco-efficiency.

http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/sus-dev/rethinking-our-built-environment/

http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/sus-dev/towards-a-sustainable-future/ (summary)

Thanks

Comment by Chelsea Matilda Robinson on October 9, 2009 at 2:07pm: http://www.wordsmith.co.nz/projects/idealog-advertorial.pdf
From Idealog magazine, businesses finding sustainability through innovation.
"From emissions to low carbon opportunities"

Comment by Rebeka Whale on April 21, 2009 at 5:13pm: Hello! Is anyone out there interested in working with me to set up a workshop/seminar series using Cradle to Cradle principles for Art and Design students (and tutors)?
I have created a google doc i'd be keen to share with you if you're interested...let me know.

Comment by Carl Chenery on January 27, 2009 at 11:21am: What do Restorative buildings look like?
Janis Birkeland, author of the book Positive Development: From vicious circles to virtuous cycles (source 1 & 2), is speaking in Auckland & Wellington. You can see the Auckland event here and wellington event here

Michael Braungart recommended her work when he came out to NZ last Sept. Great to see MfE and others hosting the next conversations with a restorative and regenerative agenda.

Comment by maggie b on November 21, 2008 at 9:36am: Hi Carl

I found this http://www.systemreload.org/ and this video http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=91076&videoChannel=74 related to it about very creative green design options...the reuters channel it comes from also is a fantastic resource for environmental issues around the world.
Not strictly cradle to cradle stuff but nonetheless green design material...let me know if there is a better place to post this in ..the site seems like a great educational resource I want others to see.

Comment by hugh davidson on October 28, 2008 at 8:42pm: Moved my response respectfully to the discussion forum.

Comment by Carl Chenery on October 22, 2008 at 3:56pm: Hi Hugh,
Yes I saw this as well.

I noticed in Michael's language when he was here, he stayed away from the language of 'guru' and interrupted it when mentioned. I would notice that we do all sorts of things to people when we put them up on pedestals, including outsource our own initiative and accountability for the future, when we are the ones we have been waiting for.

In Bill and Michael's work I would say the biggest thing I have learnt as not to limit our ambition as a species to simply producing less harm to imagining with a positive intention for a positive impact. As Kim Hill said on National Radio- 'I could see how this would require a redesign of everything.' We cant leave this up to a few people.

My listening of Michael's contributions was very different, and he was very generous with his time for his very complete schedule of meetings and speaking engagements whilst he was here. I heard questions being asked in a paradigm of thinking of still trying to minimise, and him asking people to ask a different question.

I am just reading a book by Peter Block called Community- the Structure of Belonging, very insightful with a number of distinctions which if we took as an approach to life and living in community would make a real difference. One of them is focussing on people's gifts (think about if we took this on seriously in our relationships, family, education, healthcare instead of paying attention to people's deficiencies). Feels like as we grow a planetary community, that we could grow the future we want by paying attention to people's gifts, what they bring and weaving that with the wisdom of others as a way to move forward.

I wonder what opensourcing the C2C data/information would look like and what mass collaboration around re:design would look like?

Comment by hugh davidson on October 22, 2008 at 3:09pm: ouch!
very revealing article on Bill (cradle to cradle) McDonough

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/130/the-mortal-messiah.html?page=0%2C0

Be sure to read the whole thing people and start questioning every so called sustainability guru who thinks they have to answers to save the world.

How much more western design blind self serving arrogance and hubris will poison our dreams of a better more sustainable future?

The most telling section was where he designed a completely culturally insensitive village in china. Man did they even think at all about how people actually live there?

It could be argued that Braungart displayed moments of this kind of shallow unsympathetic attitude on his visit also, getting agitated when people asked him how exactly these ideas were supposed to work in their contexts.

Comment by Glen Lauder on September 3, 2008 at 6:43pm: Carl
Outstanding work getting the young people to the Better by Design CEO summit, and what good work you and they did at the weekend before. And for the other people who got there and made the day.
Seriously grateful for your stand for this work - and really keen for the next (design) conversation for amplifying this work and deepening my/our understanding of it for NZ/the world. Glad you have agreement to secure the video footage to show more widely. This work is not for an elite.
"This is going to take us all, and it is going to take forever. But then, that's the point." (Closing line of Cradle to Cradle).
Its all good and getting better. If we keep awakening.
Very very grateful.

Comment by MARTIN HILL on July 5, 2008 at 11:22am: Hi I am Martin Hill. I am glad to see a discussion happening here on Cradle to Cradle design. My work is about communicating these principles learned from nature.
What I desperately want to do is create a range of cradle to cradle products using my images that embody the story of life cycle design. I have a large audience in NZ and internationally who buy my images they could be buying and disseminating cradle to cradle products with a story that converts people to this new thinking. Would anyone like to help in bringing this about?