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Cradle to Cradle Design is a system of thinking based on the
belief that human design can approach the effectiveness and elegance
of natural systems by learning from nature and incorporating its
patterns. Industry can be transformed into a sustaining enterprise—one
that creates economic, ecological, and social value—through
thoughtful and intentional design that mirrors the safe, regenerative
productivity of nature and eliminates the concept of waste.
The application of cradle-to-cradle principles to industry creates
cyclical material flows (cradle-to-cradle rather than cradle-to-grave)
that, like the earth’s nutrient cycles, eliminate the concept
of waste. Each material in a product is designed to be safe and
effective, and to provide high quality resources for subsequent
generations of products. All materials are conceived as nutrients,
circulating safely and productively in one of two “metabolisms”—the
biological metabolism and the technical metabolism.
The Biological Metabolism
The biological metabolism is the system of natural processes
that support life. These processes include the degradation of
organic materials and their incorporation into organisms—cyclical,
and ultimately fueled by sunlight. Materials that contribute to
the productivity of the metabolism are biological nutrients. Ideally,
products of human industry designed from biodegradable, ecologically
safe materials participate in the biological metabolism after
use through decomposition.
The Technical Metabolism
Industry can also be modeled after natural processes to create
technical metabolisms, systems that productively cycle industrial
materials. These materials, valuable for their performance qualities
and typically ‘non-renewable,’ are technical nutrients,
designed to circulate safely and perpetually through cradle-to-cradle
product life cycles of production, use, recovery, and re-manufacture.
The processes of the technical metabolism are industrial rather
than natural, but ideally are also fueled by the energy of the
sun in the form of renewable energy.
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