Stuff doesn’t have to be a problem. Yes! We can have our stuff and feel good too. We just need to adopt the simple methods of Cradle to Cradle into our business practices. According to Bridgett Luther, President of the C2C Products Innovation Institute, people are starting to set up the infrastructure to salvage the expensive materials needed for manufacturing. They are seeing into a future where all 9 billion people want stuff on a planet with limited resources. Yet each of us having stuff in harmony with nature and each other is possible by applying the Cradle to Cradle model.
Bridgett shares some amazing stories of successful companies doing well, yet providing a positive footprint in the planet, such as Method a personal hygiene company whose sole goal was to create a soap that would not harm the San Francisco Bay. Another example is how companies are actually taking fabric out of the mainstream landfills and creating businesses in trafficking old goods into new homes with the fabric eventually becoming insulation for homes thereby making good use of a global glut of wasted fabric.
All it takes is the intention to create a positive impact when conceiving the product. Then the solutions becomes a design challenge–which is the game changer from the standpoint of innovative thinking.
When one’s intention is to creates a product that will never see the landfill, the creative mind begins to approach design in an entirely different way. At the end of it’s life cycle, the jacket, toaster or car will be reborn. The object is taken into a new context with value and meaning. The C2C Products Innovation Institute has grown into a multinational nonprofit organization with it’s main offices in San Francisco. Thanks to the Dutch lottery, C2C has a European base in the Netherlands. The goal of the organization is to provide education, guidance and a certification program for businesses to embody the Cradle to Cradle model.
If we allow everything we create to become better and better, and at the same time diminish the impact on the environment, we will eventually achieve zero impact. In heading up the sustainability institute, Bridgett Luther has seen over 120 companies go through the process. Her examples of the Cradle to Cradle model show how businesses are being so successful they are actually making a positive footprint while making money.
Basically the path to achieve this consists of going into the C2C Products Innovation Institute to become familiar with the approaches being used to solve complex problems companies face such as waste, water effluent, use of toxins and a myriad of other issues.
During the process of certification, a company learns what they need to do within their current structure to change–so they can become a positive impact on the planet. If every single factory in China followed the example of the Swiss textile factory who left the rivers cleaner than when they started, we would have clean rivers in our lifetime. And if every company practiced this philosophy, everyone in the world would be able to have the stuff they wanted without using up the entire planet in the process.
The book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
When looking at the complex problems of the world related to every aspect of manufacturing and business, we can rethink how we do things to make a positive impact and live in a much better world.
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LEARN MORE
Visit Cradle to Cradle http://c2ccertified.org/
Get the book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
Special thanks to VERGE and for the GreenBiz conferences happening globally to help illuminate our paths to sustainability. To attend VERGE, visit http://www.greenbiz.com/topic/verge
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