Monthly Feature: A Walk in the Garden—Shaw's Development of Cradle-to-Cradle Carpets

How does a company with the most modern PVC-backed carpet tile production facility in the industry decide to start moving to cradle-to-cradle, polypropylene backing? And why?

In this month's feature story, Steve Bradfield, Shaw Industries' Vice President of Environmental Development, relates how his company engaged the cradle-to-cradle agenda quietly a few years ago, and turned the idea into a market success. Shaw's announcement of a new cradle-to-cradle collection of carpet tiles—the William McDonough Design Portfolio—highlights just how much progress the company has made.

Read this month's feature story at MBDC.com.
http://www.mbdc.com

June 17th: Shaw and Wm. McDonough Introduce Carpet Tile Collection at Neocon

On Tuesday morning, June 17th, William McDonough will be at the Shaw booth at Neocon to introduce A Walk in the Garden: The William McDonough Design Portfolio. The carpet tile collection shows patterns drawn from photographs Mr. McDonough took on a visit to China, and is made from chemicals and materials that are being screened by MBDC's Protocol for their healthy cradle-to-cradle benefits. If you're at Neocon, be sure to visit Shaw's booth and see the designs.

Find out more about the William McDonough Design Portfolio at Shaw's website:
http://www.shawcontract.com/html/html/collections_html/sha_coll_garden.shtml

June 19th: MBDC's Joseph Rinkevich to Speak at LOHAS Market Trends Conference

On Thursday, June 19th, MBDC's Joe Rinkevich will lead a plenary workshop at the LOHAS Market Trends Conference in Broomfield, Colorado. In his 75-minute session, Joe will present an interactive set of questions, ideas and exercises around the cradle-to-cradle paradigm that challenge participants to explore the prospect of a design and communications strategy to transcend conventional ideas of sustainability.

The LOHAS Market Trends Conference, now in its seventh year, is described as "the leading CEO-level business conference and trade fair serving the $230-billion Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) market."

Find out more about the conference:
http://www.lohasjournal.com/

July 11th: Cradle-to-Cradle Packaging Industry Workshop & Discussion

As we announced in last month's newsletter, on July 11th MBDC will host a free, day-long workshop and discussion for packaging industry professionals to explore the opportunities for cradle-to-cradle packaging design. Because of the interest shown in this event, we have had to expand to a larger location—the Executive Education Program at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration will co-host the event at their facilities.

GreenBlue, a new nonprofit dedicated to the adoption and implementation of cradle-to-cradle principles, will facilitate the workshop. The purpose of the workshop is to provide professionals in the packaging industry with a basic understanding of the cradle-to-cradle design paradigm, and to allow them to discuss the possibility of forming an industry working group to implement these concepts.

Get more information on the workshop and discussion, and see the updated agenda:
http://www.mbdc.com/packaging/

Please keep in touch with MBDC, and share our newsletter with your friends and colleagues.

Phil

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Phil Storey
MBDC, Manager of Communications
phil.storey@mbdc.com