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In a cradle-to-cradle
business, every product is designed to provide a wide spectrum of
assets. After a useful life as a healthful product that generates
economic, ecological and cultural value, cradle-to-cradle materials
either replenish the earth with biodegradable matter or supply high-quality
technical resources for the next generation of products. When materials
are created specifically for use within these closed-loop cycles—the
flow of biological materials through nature’s cycles of growth,
decay and rebirth, and the circulation of industrial materials from
producer to customer to producer—businesses can realize both
enormous short-term growth and enduring prosperity.
The key to optimizing the assets of cradle-to-cradle materials lies
in the intelligent management of material flows. After eons of evolution,
Nature is well equipped to effectively manage the nutrient cycles
of the biological metabolism. Though 4,000 years of agriculture
suggest that we are hardwired to fashion tools that allow us to
participate in those natural cycles, human tools themselves—our
technologies and synthetic materials—are part of a separate
technical metabolism that can only be managed by human design.
To effectively manage the flows of polymers, rare minerals and high-tech
materials for industry, we’ve developed a nutrient management
system for the technical metabolism. This system, our concept of
Intelligent Materials Pooling, calls for cooperative business networks
geared to optimizing the value of cradle-to-cradle materials.
In an intelligent materials pool multiple companies share access
to a common supply of a particular high-quality material, such as
nylon 6 or pure copper. As partners draw materials from the pool
to create new products, they also replenish it with materials they
have recovered from their customers after a defined period of use.
Sharing resources and knowledge, information and purchasing power,
partners in a materials pool ideally develop a shared commitment
to generating a healthy system of material flows and to using the
healthiest, highest quality technical ingredients in all of their
products. Together they form a values-based business community focused
not only on eliminating the concept of waste from manufacturing
cycles, but on celebrating the ecological, cultural and economic
richness of the material world.
Origins: Salmon Pools, Material Pools and Supportive Business Communities
While Nature provides the model for closed-loop material flows,
so, too, does it offer metaphors for the rich relationships that
grow out of Intelligent Materials Pooling. Surprising as it might
seem, an Icelandic salmon pool is one of them. We realized this
while standing hip-deep in a cold river in northeastern Iceland
with our friends and colleagues Darcy Winslow (Nike’s Director
of Women’s Footwear), Keith Winn (Herman Miller’s Advanced
Project Manager at the time and now principal of Catalyst Partners)
and Ed Guerrini (BASF/Honeywell’s Director of Innovative Business
Solutions). We’d gathered in Iceland to talk about our shared
hopes for the future and we’d discovered that fly-fishing offered
peaceful moments to reflect together on our relationship to all
the resources that make our lives possible.
Most of us had come to Iceland from the U.S. where Atlantic salmon
populations have been decimated. Just seeing the fish in the pools
of the Sela River was a delight, but we also wanted to participate
in the local traditions. Icelanders love to fish, and they also
believe that the salmon belong to the rivers. So we took up our
fly-rods and fished like Icelanders: standing in pairs, side-by-side
in the river, one of us would cast, catch a fish, and then carefully
tag its dorsal fin for scientific research on salmon life-cycles.
Once released, the fish would dart away, joining a dozen healthy
salmon at the bottom of the river.
This was a rich and rewarding experience. Not only were we participating
in an age-old cultural relationship with Atlantic salmon, and supporting
salmon protection in the process, we were also discovering a new
way of thinking about our material resources. Just as Atlantic salmon
belong to the rivers, we can also see the world’s other rare,
valuable resources as belonging to the global commons; they’re
shared blessings that we are called upon to use with intelligence
and wisdom.
The wisdom actually comes from using our resources and sharing them
with others. After Darcy Winslow caught and released a fish, for
example, she would hand the rod to Ed Guerrini, who had an equal
or better chance of catching one—there were still a dozen salmon
in the pool, and Darcy’s tips on casting technique and choice
of fly had given him an added edge.Our concept of Intelligent Materials
Pooling works the same way. It sees the world’s resources as
a shared blessing. Just as catching and eating all the salmon we
could at this point in history would likely end their time on Earth,
discarding once-used mineral resources also mortgages the future.
Understanding that this is simply a matter of bad design, partners
in an intelligent materials pool work together in a supportive business
community, pooling resources to generate material intelligence and
profitable cradle-to-cradle material flows. They wouldn’t compete
to catch all the salmon; they’d release them back into the
pool and share information and success.
The evolution of an intelligent materials pool follows the same
steps as almost any kind of community or nation building: The community
decides what it does not want; it chooses what it does want; its
members support each other against those who endanger the community;
a culture bound by shared values forms. The result: a life support
system for sustainable commerce; a community supported by, and committed
to, intelligent design.
From a strategic perspective, the process begins with an agreement
to phase out an environmentally dangerous material, such as PVC,
common to a number of companies. Out of this shared commitment to
intelligent design comes a community of companies with the market
strength to effectively engineer the phase-out and develop innovative
alternative materials. Together, they specify for preferred materials,
establish defined-use periods for products and services, and create
an intelligent materials bank from which each partner deposits and
withdraws. This business support system gives companies the strength
and know-how to make material flows management an ongoing harvest
of cradle-to-cradle assets rather than an endless exercise in managing
cradle-to-grave liabilities.
A Practical Vision
What would this look like in practice? Imagine if Nike, Herman Miller
and BASF created a materials pool and shared access to high-quality
nylon. Nike and Herman Miller would enjoy the cost savings generated
by their ability to generate purchases in larger volumes than either
company could generate alone, while BASF, the nylon manufacturer
and bank, would be supported in its efforts to develop innovative,
ecologically intelligent polymers. Nike and Herman Miller would
also be able to depend on the high quality of the nylon circulating
through the pool and use it for a variety of new purposes as they
learned about its qualities. The more the material is used, the
more information is gained and shared, which would optimize its
processing, recovery and re-use. With mutual support, the companies
could begin co-branding, creating a strong, shared identity built
on a new vision of quality, which in turn would generate a strong
and valuable market identity.
In this scenario, the information about the material becomes as
important as the material itself, making the distinction between
the old and new economy obsolete. BASF would, in effect, become
a high-tech communications company, materializing information. That
is, it would provide material intelligence as it gained technical
information from processing and reprocessing a material over time.
Rather than downcycling a material for use in a product of lesser
value, BASF would be upcycling, adding value and information to
a material as it cycled through the bank. Together, the companies
could create an ecologically intelligent culture of innovation.
Creating Material Pools with Industrial
Partners
While Nike, BASF and Herman Miller are the pioneers in the consideration
of Intelligent Materials Pooling, companies from a variety of manufacturing
sectors could collaborate to create material banks for nearly every
valuable commodity, from chemicals to steel to advanced polymers.
Companies can begin to benefit from Intelligent Materials Pooling
by following a step-by-step, community-building process. As we have
seen, the process follows the same steps as almost any kind of community
building: as members find common cause and provide support for one
another, the separate elements of the community begin to gel, forming
a shared identity grounded in mutual trust.
The key steps in the development of a community of shared values
bear repeating: the community decides what it does not want; it
chooses what it does want; its members support each other against
those who endanger the community; a culture bound by shared values
forms.
From an industrial design perspective, the community would come
together out of a mutual interest in the values of cradle-to-cradle
thinking—eco-effectiveness, eliminating the concept of waste,
celebrating abundance, supporting life—and the steps and principles
of MBDC’s Cradle to Cradle protocol, which would provide partners
with the practical tools for success. The process might look something
like this:
Phase 1: Creating Community
* Identify shared values: Cradle
to Cradle Design; eliminating the
concept of waste
* Identify willing industrial
partners
* Target specific toxic chemicals
for replacement
Phase 2: Utilizing Market Strength
* Share list of materials targeted
for phase out
* Develop a positive purchasing
and
procurement list of preferred
intelligent chemicals
Phase 3: Defining Material Flows
* Specify for and design with
preferred materials
* Define use periods for products
and services
* Create a materials bank
* Design a technical metabolism
for preferred materials
Phase 4: Ongoing Support
* Create preferred business
partner agreements among members
* Share information gained from
material use and research
* Develop co-branding strategies
* Support the mechanisms of
the
technical metabolism
Finding willing partners might be hard to imagine in the competitive
world of business, but it is hardly unprecedented. In the textile
industry, innovative mills like Victor Innovatex and Rohner Textil,
along with MBDC and The DesignTex Group, have profitably collaborated
on the design and production of ecologically intelligent fabrics.
In the textile and apparel industry at large, several companies
we have worked with have expressed deep interest in joining together
to create a “polyester coalition.” With the technology
for truly recycling polyester in development, a polyester collective
could begin to close the loop on the flow of this widely used industrial
material.
An Intelligent Polyester Pool, an Intelligent Steel Pool
Here’s how a polyester cooperative might work: Willing partners
would first agree on their shared commitment to product quality.
Though partners might represent different industries and perspectives,
they would be bound by common values. As with all new communities,
a polyester pool would have to develop a framework of governance
to set up the standards and protocols of working together. One could
imagine the process as a kind of nation building and the framework
as a constitution that outlines the rights and responsibilities
of all partners, which all would agree to in a spirit of mutual
trust. This exercise in community building would lay the foundation
for future work.
With common ground established, the coalition partners would begin
to create a list of specific chemicals used in the manufacture of
polyester that are widely known to be harmful. These would be targeted
for phase-out. Participating companies would then generate a list
of preferred intelligent materials—the ingredients they would
ultimately like to use to create an ecologically intelligent polyester.
Victor Innovatex, with MBDC, is already developing such a material.
After developing common specifications for intelligent polyester,
the members of the coalition would begin to specify it as a product
ingredient. With the power of its pooled market, the coalition could
approach polyester producers and invite them to become partners.
Ideally, the producers would be equipped with chemical recycling
systems, which would effectively allow them to become polyester
banks. The coalition would agree to purchase all of its polyester
from the producers, and the producers would agree to manufacture
intelligent polyester and take back and recycle all of the materials
the coalition returned. The companies would define the use periods
for their products and individually set up take back programs to
replenish the material bank. A polyester loop would be effectively
closed, eliminating waste from the technical metabolism of the coalition.
This process could be widely applied. In the steel industry, for
example, value is often lost when a range of grades are mixed in
recycling. A materials pool could preserve the value of steel over
many lifecycles by specifying the separation of different grades
in the technical metabolism. Rare, valuable constituent elements
such as chromium, nickel, manganese, cobalt and copper could also
be preserved and reused at the highest level of quality. When high-quality
steel is recycled with high-quality steel, the metal retains its
structural integrity. With cooperation between steel-makers and
the manufacturers of a wide variety of products, from automobiles
to trains to refrigerators, the steel loop could begin to be closed
and the value of its nutrients preserved over time.
Products of Service: Seeding Material Pools
Some companies have already begun to develop material pools with
our product of service concept; they sell the service a product
provides rather than the product itself. Carpet companies, for example,
lease to their customers the service of floor covering. When the
carpet wears out, the carpet is retrieved by the manufacturer and
its materials are reused in new carpets.
Shaw Industries now guarantees that all of its nylon 6 carpet fiber
will be returned to nylon 6 fiber, and its safe, polyolefin backing
returned to safe, polyolefin backing. Raw material to raw material.
No compromises. This strategy can be applied to any product: Car
makers can provide the service of mobility; washing machine manufacturers
can provide the service of clean clothes; computer distributors
can provide the service of information and instant contact with
the world, and so on.
Providing a service rather than a product has many benefits. First,
it seeds the development of material pools. Companies maintain ownership
of their materials while profiting from the services they offer.
When the product is returned, its ingredients, if intelligently
designed, can be used again in new products. Designing for recovery
and reuse also gives companies the opportunity to specify high-quality
materials—they will never lose their investment—and to
design products with built in flexibility. Products designed for
disassembly, for example, might contain high-tech parts that can
be easily re-used in the next generation of evolving high-tech machinery.
All of this, of course, results in the intelligent and effective
use of valuable materials.
A Promising Future
Products of service are already a part of the industrial landscape,
seeding material pools in evolving industries. Hints of business-to-business
cooperation are also emerging as innovative companies explore the
future of intelligent materials. There are, perhaps, many success
stories on the horizon. To be truly successful on a large scale,
however, material banks will have to be adopted throughout industry.
Closing the loop on material flows is the key to intelligent design
and regenerative commerce. When industrial systems accrue value
with healthy products, we can all celebrate human productivity and
ingenuity rather than lamenting our impact on the world. As we move
toward this goal with positive aspirations, modeling industry on
the elegant designs of the natural world, we can begin to create
the intelligent products and intelligent support systems that will
allow both business and nature to thrive and grow.
In such a world, we might be able to look forward to the return
of the Atlantic salmon. We could watch them in the spring, swimming
and gathering in riffling pools in the millions, taking pleasure
in their numbers, celebrating their abundance, and blessing their
presence as they bless ours.
| GOOD GROWTH FOR ALL |
Ask not “How much can I get for how little
I give?” but instead, “How much can we give for all
that we get?”
By William McDonough
New concepts like Intelligent Materials Pooling suggest we are
living in a propitious moment for business strategies that celebrate
the abundance of the natural world rather than bemoan its limits.
Indeed,
a host of hugely successful projects generating environmental
and
commercial health signal the transformation of the principles
of
economic life. In some imaginations, the passing of the old
rules is
cause for fear; in others it represents an exciting opportunity
to develop new models of enterprise in tune with what the world
needs today.
Nothing means quite what it used to mean. In the world of sustainable
business, environmental regulations have been seen as drivers
of design innovations that produce profitable solutions and
competitive advantage. But what if competition and success were
defined not by how well a business meets regulations, but by
how generously it enhances social, ecological and economic well
being?
This transforms our notion of value. Value has conventionally
been perceived as being generated by asking “How much can
I get for how little I give?” But when value is seen as
growing with the increase of social health, the question is
turned on its head. We are called to ask not “How much
can I get for how little I give?” but instead, “How
much can we give for all that we get?”
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The new Green Blue Institute (GBI), an emerging
non-profit, grows from this question. It will offer the cradle-to-cradle
framework and strategy free to everyone to help make intelligent
design commonplace. It will promote enterprises designed to
foster good growth and genuine value, supporting projects that
bring hearing aids to children and restore eyesight to the elderly—virtually
for free. Other GBI social ventures might generate flourishing
ecosystems and prosperous
farms, or factories designed to be not simply boxes full of
tools, but life-affirming places that create habitat, filter
water and provide safe, pleasant and productive work environments—all
cost effectively.
The idea is good growth for all. Instead of reducing our environmental
footprint, we grow it, leaving behind wetlands, fertile farmland,
nutrition, clean water, and restored landscapes. This pursuit
can be integrated into conventional business strategy. “How
much can we give for all we get?” is what Michael Braungart
and I call a Triple Top Line design question. Rather than measuring
at the bottom line the reduction of liabilities, triple top
line thinking pursues design solutions that enhance value: more
social revenue, more ecological revenue, more economic revenue—more
good growth.
“How much can we give for all we get?” It’s a
question with transforming power. Used as a tool to drive the
design of new ventures and enterprises it can generate a dynamic
field of economic inquiry and a rich, fulfilling arena for business
growth.
William McDonough’s keynote speech on Friday, May 2, during
EnvironDesign®7, will address the business opportunities
generated by asking not, “How much can I get for how little
I give,” but instead “How much can we give for what
we get.” He will explore the social, economic and ecological
implications of this sea change as it is manifest in the design
of materials, products, buildings, and communities, as well
as energy, communication and transportation systems. |
William A. McDonough, FAIA, and Michael Braungart are founders
of McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry, a consultancy that works
with a wide variety of companies to implement eco-effective design
and commerce strategies. For more information, visit www.mbdc.com.
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