About Cradle to Cradle Design:
Eco Exhibits embrace the Cradle to Cradle design concept.
Industrial and manufacturing systems, under this concept, are designed to emulate
the naturally
effective systems found in nature.
Cradle to Cradle is built around the simple tenant, Waste = Food. As in nature,
waste from one process becomes food for another. Thus, all waste we produce,
either products at the end of their usefulness or manufacturing by-products,
are no longer thrown “away”. Instead, our waste becomes either a
technical nutrient: food for another industrial process, or a natural nutrient:
non-toxic, biodegradable, beneficial food nourishing plants, soils and the environment.
Abundance without Waste
Today, many industries have adopted a strategy known as “eco-efficiency” which
seeks to reduce toxic pollution and reduce the consumption of natural resources.
While comendable, this concept is not a long-term solution because it relies
on only reducing the depletion rate of natural resources and reducing the toxic
chemicals in our waste stream. Essentially, reducing is only being less bad.
The solution is to create systems that allow for abundant production yet operate
harmoniously with the natural and industrial systems around them, neither depleting
natural resources nor producing destructive waste.
Consider the Cherry tree
Architect William McDonough uses the metaphor of the cherry tree to illustrate
this concept:
“Consider the cherry tree: thousands of blossoms create fruit for birds, humans,
and other animals, in order that one pit might eventually fall onto the ground,
take root, and grow. Who would look at the ground littered with cherry blossoms
and complain, 'How inefficient and wasteful!' The tree makes copious blossoms
and fruit without depleting its environment. Once they fall on the ground, their
materials decompose and break down into nutrients that nourish microorganisms,
insects, plants, animals, and soil. Although the tree actually makes more of
its product than it needs for its own success in an ecosystem, this abundance
has evolved (through millions of years of success and failure or, in business
terms, R&D), to serve rich and varied purposes. In fact, the tree’s
fecundity nourishes just about everything around it. What might the human built
world look like if the cherry tree had produced it?”
For more Information on Cradle to Cradle Design
Eco-Effectiveness: Nature's Design Patterns
http://www.mbdc.com/c2c_ee.htm
Writings by Architect William Mcdonough
http://www.mcdonough.com/writings.htm
Cradle to Cradle/Remaking the Way We Make Things
http://www.mcdonough.com/cradle_to_cradle.htm
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