Cradle to Cradle

Authors: Inga Römmer-Collmann, Lea-Sophie Fass, Joern Hoppmann, Jana Walkemeyer, Joana Weber
Last updated: March 16, 2023

1. Definition

All processes within a company that include directly serving a customer to fulfill their requirements are called “core processes“. Therefore, it can be said that core processes represent the central objectives of a company and help with the creation of value. In the traditional understanding of a company, these core processes are located within the company’s corporate limits and the main focus of a company’s management lies on the value creation with the customer. This corporate management concept is called “from Gate to Gate“. In a sustainable corporate management mindset, the responsibility of the company’s core processes is widened, which means that corporate responsibility is extended from procurement to disposal, which includes the entire value chain of a company and reaches beyond its corporate limits. This concept of management is called “from Cradle to Grave“ and if a company also considers the further use of their disposable materials at the end of a product life cycle, this sustainable management concept is called “from Cradle to Cradle“.¹Mayer, K. Nachhaltigkeit: 125 Fragen und Antworten. (2nd Ed., Wiesbaden: Springer, 2020), p. 66 et seq. Since more companies within the global economy started taking into account the environment, society, and governance while doing business, they also started to rethink their entire business models and their creation of value. This also created a more transparent management of the effects of their entrepreneurial actions. To ensure that, businesses started to adopt the Cradle-to-Cradle approach into their business strategies to implement corporate sustainability into their core business. The term “Cradle to Cradle” (C2C) was shaped and introduced to the global economy by Professor Dr. Michael Braungart and William McDonough in their book “Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the way we make things” in 2002.²Toxopeus M.E., de Koeijer B.L.A. & Meij A.G.G.H. Cradle to Cradle: Effective Vision vs. Efficient Practice?. Procedia CIRP 29, 384-389 (2015). Since then, the Cradle-to-Cradle approach stands for eco-effectiveness as a concept for a circular economy. Strategies that include eco-effectiveness maintain or increase the value of any economic output while they decrease the impact of this output upon global ecological systems simultaneously.

With the concept of eco-effectiveness, a transformation of products and their connecting material flow is initiated to support ecological systems and economic growth. In contrast to the Cradle to Grave approach, where products and materials are only “downcycled”, the Cradle-to-Cradle approach creates a cyclical conversion that helps materials maintain their status as a resource. This approach is called “Upcycling”. This method creates positive synergies between economic and ecological systems.³Braungart, M., McDonough, W. & Bollinger, A. Cradle-to-cradle design: creating healthy emissions – a strategy for eco-effective product and system design. Journal of Cleaner Production, 1-12 (2006). The goal of the Cradle-to-Cradle concept is to have an indefinite circulation of resources so that the end of a product cycle is the beginning of another product cycle. When this approach is correctly implemented within a company, in the ideal case, the total value chain has no losses, and waste is abolished.⁴Mayer, K. Nachhaltigkeit: 125 Fragen und Antworten. (2nd Ed., Wiesbaden: Springer, 2020), p. 67.

2. Principles

To achieve eco-effectiveness with the C2C approach, Braungart and McDonough formulated three different principles: 

1. Waste is equal to food: everything is designed as a resource for something else 
2. Use of current solar income: the dependence on renewable energy sources 
3. Celebrate diversity: supporting biodiversity, socio-cultural diversity and conceptual diversity⁵Ankrah, N., Manu, E. & Booth, C. Cradle to cradle implementation in business sites and the perspectives of tenant stakeholders. Energy Procedia 83, 31-40 (2015).

The “waste equals food” principle is based on the analogy that all materials are nutrients for other life cycles and can serve as either technical or biological resources for other metabolisms at the end of their use period. The aspiration behind this principle is that it prevents the loss of material value and avoids downcycling and instead enforces true recycling. Technical and biological resources become necessary as part of other life cycles and are not wasted.⁶Toxopeus M.E., de Koeijer B.L.A. & Meij A.G.G.H. Cradle to Cradle: Effective Vision vs. Efficient Practice?. Procedia CIRP 29, 384-389 (2015)., ⁷Ankrah, N., Manu, E. & Booth, C. Cradle-to-cradle implementation in business sites and the perspectives of tenant stakeholders. Energy Procedia 83, 31-40 (2015).

The second principle, which concerns the usage of current solar income, focuses on sustainable energy. According to the C2C principle, only renewable energy sources should be used when producing, operating, and dissolving products and services.⁸Toxopeus M.E., de Koeijer B.L.A. & Meij A.G.G.H. Cradle to Cradle: Effective Vision vs. Efficient Practice?. Procedia CIRP 29, 384-389 (2015). For example, buildings should be designed to primarily produce energy with the help of solar panels rather than only consuming energy. That way, these buildings produce renewable energy to provide for themselves and can contribute to a positive ecological footprint. At present, renewable energy is mostly provided for intermediate-load energy supplies while the economy still mainly relies on conventional energy sources such as coal or nuclear fuels for base-load energy. Therefore, further technological improvements and innovations are needed to ensure the implementation of this C2C principle and to provide sustainable energy for the global economy.⁹Ankrah, N., Manu, E. & Booth, C. Cradle-to-cradle implementation in business sites and the perspectives of tenant stakeholders. Energy Procedia 83, 31-40 (2015).

The last principle of the Cradle-to-Cradle approach is the celebration of diversity. This principle presupposes the idea that an improvement of any system’s resilience needs diversity. This means that a diverse alignment of systems improves relationships, creativity, and innovation while focusing on one criterion would lead to instability and imbalance.¹⁰Toxopeus M.E., de Koeijer B.L.A. & Meij A.G.G.H. Cradle to Cradle: Effective Vision vs. Efficient Practice?. Procedia CIRP 29, 384-389 (2015). In the case of the C2C principle, the diversities on which the approach is focused are biodiversity, socio-cultural diversity, and conceptual diversity.¹¹Ankrah, N., Manu, E. & Booth, C. Cradle-to-cradle implementation in business sites and the perspectives of tenant stakeholders. Energy Procedia 83, 31-40 (2015).

In general, it can be said that these three principles are benchmarks for the implementation of the C2C approach and can be applied to create a positive ecological footprint within the organization.¹²Ankrah, N., Manu, E. & Booth, C. Cradle-to-cradle implementation in business sites and the perspectives of tenant stakeholders. Energy Procedia 83, 31-40 (2015). The Cradle-to-Cradle philosophy, which was initiated by Braungart and McDonough, can therefore be looked at as a holistic theory for sustainable circular development that aims for eco-effectiveness.¹³Toxopeus M.E., de Koeijer B.L.A. & Meij A.G.G.H. Cradle to Cradle: Effective Vision vs. Efficient Practice?. Procedia CIRP 29, 384-389 (2015). Eco-effectiveness forms the basis for true upcycling by empowering materials to maintain their status as nutrients after their life cycle ends.¹⁴Braungart, M., McDonough, W. & Bollinger, A. Cradle-to-cradle design: creating healthy emissions – a strategy for eco-effective product and system design. Journal of Cleaner Production, 1-12 (2006). Therefore the C2C approach and eco-effectiveness aim to inspire companies to further search for new innovative solutions to achieve a more sustainable usage of products and as a result a more sustainable world. But due to present limitations like the primary focus on traditional energy sources, the Cradle-to-Cradle approach often does not yet take full effect in practice.¹⁵Toxopeus M.E., de Koeijer B.L.A. & Meij A.G.G.H. Cradle to Cradle: Effective Vision vs. Efficient Practice?. Procedia CIRP 29, 384-389 (2015). Still this approach poses an exemplary practical implementation when it comes to corporate sustainability and its implementation at the core of the business.

References

• 1
  Mayer, K. Nachhaltigkeit: 125 Fragen und Antworten. (2nd Ed., Wiesbaden: Springer, 2020), p. 66 et seq.
• 2
  Toxopeus M.E., de Koeijer B.L.A. & Meij A.G.G.H. Cradle to Cradle: Effective Vision vs. Efficient Practice?. Procedia CIRP 29, 384-389 (2015).
• 3
  Braungart, M., McDonough, W. & Bollinger, A. Cradle-to-cradle design: creating healthy emissions – a strategy for eco-effective product and system design. Journal of Cleaner Production, 1-12 (2006).
• 4
  Mayer, K. Nachhaltigkeit: 125 Fragen und Antworten. (2nd Ed., Wiesbaden: Springer, 2020), p. 67.
• 5
  Ankrah, N., Manu, E. & Booth, C. Cradle to cradle implementation in business sites and the perspectives of tenant stakeholders. Energy Procedia 83, 31-40 (2015).
• 6
  Toxopeus M.E., de Koeijer B.L.A. & Meij A.G.G.H. Cradle to Cradle: Effective Vision vs. Efficient Practice?. Procedia CIRP 29, 384-389 (2015).
• 7
  Ankrah, N., Manu, E. & Booth, C. Cradle-to-cradle implementation in business sites and the perspectives of tenant stakeholders. Energy Procedia 83, 31-40 (2015).
• 8
  Toxopeus M.E., de Koeijer B.L.A. & Meij A.G.G.H. Cradle to Cradle: Effective Vision vs. Efficient Practice?. Procedia CIRP 29, 384-389 (2015).
• 9
  Ankrah, N., Manu, E. & Booth, C. Cradle-to-cradle implementation in business sites and the perspectives of tenant stakeholders. Energy Procedia 83, 31-40 (2015).
• 10
  Toxopeus M.E., de Koeijer B.L.A. & Meij A.G.G.H. Cradle to Cradle: Effective Vision vs. Efficient Practice?. Procedia CIRP 29, 384-389 (2015).
• 11
  Ankrah, N., Manu, E. & Booth, C. Cradle-to-cradle implementation in business sites and the perspectives of tenant stakeholders. Energy Procedia 83, 31-40 (2015).
• 12
  Ankrah, N., Manu, E. & Booth, C. Cradle-to-cradle implementation in business sites and the perspectives of tenant stakeholders. Energy Procedia 83, 31-40 (2015).
• 13
  Toxopeus M.E., de Koeijer B.L.A. & Meij A.G.G.H. Cradle to Cradle: Effective Vision vs. Efficient Practice?. Procedia CIRP 29, 384-389 (2015).
• 14
  Braungart, M., McDonough, W. & Bollinger, A. Cradle-to-cradle design: creating healthy emissions – a strategy for eco-effective product and system design. Journal of Cleaner Production, 1-12 (2006).
• 15
  Toxopeus M.E., de Koeijer B.L.A. & Meij A.G.G.H. Cradle to Cradle: Effective Vision vs. Efficient Practice?. Procedia CIRP 29, 384-389 (2015).

• 1
  Mayer, K. Nachhaltigkeit: 125 Fragen und Antworten. (2nd Ed., Wiesbaden: Springer, 2020), p. 66 et seq.
• 2
  Toxopeus M.E., de Koeijer B.L.A. & Meij A.G.G.H. Cradle to Cradle: Effective Vision vs. Efficient Practice?. Procedia CIRP 29, 384-389 (2015).
• 3
  Braungart, M., McDonough, W. & Bollinger, A. Cradle-to-cradle design: creating healthy emissions – a strategy for eco-effective product and system design. Journal of Cleaner Production, 1-12 (2006).
• 4
  Mayer, K. Nachhaltigkeit: 125 Fragen und Antworten. (2nd Ed., Wiesbaden: Springer, 2020), p. 67.
• 5
  Ankrah, N., Manu, E. & Booth, C. Cradle to cradle implementation in business sites and the perspectives of tenant stakeholders. Energy Procedia 83, 31-40 (2015).
• 6
  Toxopeus M.E., de Koeijer B.L.A. & Meij A.G.G.H. Cradle to Cradle: Effective Vision vs. Efficient Practice?. Procedia CIRP 29, 384-389 (2015).
• 7
  Ankrah, N., Manu, E. & Booth, C. Cradle-to-cradle implementation in business sites and the perspectives of tenant stakeholders. Energy Procedia 83, 31-40 (2015).
• 8
  Toxopeus M.E., de Koeijer B.L.A. & Meij A.G.G.H. Cradle to Cradle: Effective Vision vs. Efficient Practice?. Procedia CIRP 29, 384-389 (2015).
• 9
  Ankrah, N., Manu, E. & Booth, C. Cradle-to-cradle implementation in business sites and the perspectives of tenant stakeholders. Energy Procedia 83, 31-40 (2015).
• 10
  Toxopeus M.E., de Koeijer B.L.A. & Meij A.G.G.H. Cradle to Cradle: Effective Vision vs. Efficient Practice?. Procedia CIRP 29, 384-389 (2015).
• 11
  Ankrah, N., Manu, E. & Booth, C. Cradle-to-cradle implementation in business sites and the perspectives of tenant stakeholders. Energy Procedia 83, 31-40 (2015).
• 12
  Ankrah, N., Manu, E. & Booth, C. Cradle-to-cradle implementation in business sites and the perspectives of tenant stakeholders. Energy Procedia 83, 31-40 (2015).
• 13
  Toxopeus M.E., de Koeijer B.L.A. & Meij A.G.G.H. Cradle to Cradle: Effective Vision vs. Efficient Practice?. Procedia CIRP 29, 384-389 (2015).
• 14
  Braungart, M., McDonough, W. & Bollinger, A. Cradle-to-cradle design: creating healthy emissions – a strategy for eco-effective product and system design. Journal of Cleaner Production, 1-12 (2006).
• 15
  Toxopeus M.E., de Koeijer B.L.A. & Meij A.G.G.H. Cradle to Cradle: Effective Vision vs. Efficient Practice?. Procedia CIRP 29, 384-389 (2015).