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ICR (2007) 7:152156 DOI 10.1007/s12146-007-0020-2 ICR 2007 Published online: 28 November 2007

The wisdom of the cherry tree

With its focus on using and consuming less, much of todays debate about sustainability is negative and misconceived. By learning from nature we can chart a much richer, more positive way forward.
The current debate about environmental sustainability is misconceived, unnecessarily negative and risks taking us in the wrong direction. We urgently need to change course. If you strip away its many layers of argument, the assumptions behind most so-called green policies are that: 1)  industry is bad and we need to make it less bad 2) consumption is bad and we need to do less of it The underlying goal of sustainability as we know it today is damage management and guilt reduction. There is hardly anything positive about it at all, apart from a rather vague and general desire to save the world. This is not only demoralizing. It is ultimately a recipe for failure. But there is an alternative approach. It is one that sees industry as good and consumption as fun; that celebrates the creative and extravagant application of materials, allows for short product lifespans and helps to fuel continued economic growth. Far from minimizing material use or seeking to prolong product lifespans, it even allows for apparently profligate waste. Yet, in the process, it positively contributes to the natural environment and maintains or upgrades the quality and productivity of material resources. This is the difference between

Michael Braungart braungart@braungart.com Hamburg, Germany

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our current approach of eco-efficiency (doing things right) and eco-effectiveness (doing the right thing).

Eco-effectiveness
Nature is profligate. It doesnt care two hoots about waste. Just look at a cherry tree. Each spring it produces thousands of beautiful cherry blossoms that gladden our hearts and enrich our lives. Yet only a vanishingly small proportion of these cherry blossoms will ever become a new cherry tree. Most of its blossom simply falls to the ground and rots. If the cherry tree hired a firm of management consultants to advise it on its efficiency, their report would have to tell it that its performance is a travesty. Productivity per cherry blossom is close to zero. Waste levels are close to 100%. In fact, given the numbers, perhaps we should consider closing the whole plant down, because we are far more likely to find more efficient operations elsewhere. But the cherry tree doesnt care and nature doesnt care either. The cherry tree is not an isolated unit, and measures of efficiency or performance that treat it as an isolated unit miss the essence of what is going on. The cherry tree is just one part of a much bigger, interdependent natural eco-system and it is this interdependence that matters. For example, the blossoms of the cherry tree not only bring forth a new generation of cherry trees (while warming human hearts), they also provide food for micro-organisms which in turn nourish the soil and support the growth of future plant life. The outputs indeed waste of one process (the cherry tree and its blossoms) have become inputs for other processes. When viewed in isolation, each element within this natural system may be highly inefficient. But as a whole, the system is stunningly effective and doesnt produce any waste at all. We need to apply the cherry trees wisdom to the world of production and consumption.

from cradle to grave. While some materials are recycled, this recycling is difficult and brings added costs. The result of such recycling is actually downcycling: a downgrade in material quality which limits its future usability. We need an eco-effective perspective to replace this limited and limiting agenda. In eco-effective industrial systems, the material intensity per service unit or waste produced by each individual element is irrelevant as long as the materials entering the system are perpetually maintained as usable resources. For Michael example, if the trimmings from the Braungart production of textile garments are is professor composed in such a way that they of Process become nutrients for ecological Engineering systems, then it doesnt matter that at Universitt they are not included in the saleable Lneburg product. They are not waste. Even if (Germany) and the material intensity per service unit scientific director of the textile mill is astronomically of EPEA Internahigh, it could still be highly ecotionale Umwelteffective if its trimmings become forschung productive resources for natural GmbH, which he systems. The goal is not to minimize founded in 1987 the cradle-to-grave flow of materials, with William but to generate cyclical cradle-toMcDonough. cradle metabolic cycles that enable He is also materials to maintain their status as co-founder of resources and accumulate intelMcDonough ligence over time. Braungart Design ChemInstead of downcycling this apistry (MBDC), proach is all about upcycling. It which focuses on doesnt seek to eliminate waste or cradle-to-cradle produce zero emissions. Instead it product and focuses on maintaining (or upgradprocess design. ing) resource quality and productivity through many cycles of use (and in doing so, it achieves zero waste along the way). The difference between the two strategies of cradleto-grave and cradle-to-cradle are very important. Strategies focused on achieving zero waste do not create sustainable cradle-to-cradle cycles. But eco-efficient cradle-to-cradle cycles do achieve zero waste. How they achieve their goals is also different. Zero waste cradle-to-grave strategies emphasize volume

Cradle-to-cradle system design

Our current eco-efficient view of sustainability sees materials flowing through the system in one direction only from input to an output that is either consumed or disposed of in the form of waste. Eco-efficient techniques may be able to minimize the volume, velocity and toxicity of these material flows, but they cannot alter its linear progression

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Figure 1: Two metabolic cycles for cradle-to-cradle industrial systems. Source: EPEA minimization, reduced consumption, design for repair and durability and design for recycling and reduced toxicity. On the other hand cradle-tocradle strategies design products and industrial processes so that every single one of their outputs becomes a nutrient for another system designed to be re-used to create a perpetual cycle where resources are either maintained or upcycled. In contrast, technical nutrients such as synthetics or minerals are not biodegradable. But, if designed and used properly, they can remain safely in a closed-loop system of manufacture, recovery, and reuse through countless product life cycles, maintaining their full value every step of the way. This is technical metabolism. This is not just theory, its already happening. A German company Trigema can already manufacture a skin-friendly T-shirt, which produces no gaseous emissions and is completely biodegrad able. Likewise the fabrics for the seats of the Airbus A380. Ford is already introducing closed-loop concepts into its new Model U. This has been designed so that enzymes can be used to eat up the glue connecting each component part, so that they can all be separated and recycled. Likewise Triumph has produced a completely recyclable bra which can be processed back into polymers and re-processed to produce new bras. Complete libraries of future friendly materials are now available (see Material ConneXion for example).

Industrial metabolism
How can this be achieved? Every product and every process needs to be designed so that it feeds one of two distinct metabolic systems: biological and technical. The cherry tree is part of a biological system. Its waste those cherry blossoms is biodegradable and becomes a nutrient for other parts of the eco-system. They pose no immediate or eventual hazard and are safely returned to the environment to feed biological processes. We could do the same for a very high proportion of the materials we use in production and consumption. A biological nutrient textile could be used as garden mulch after its useful life as an upholstery fabric, for example. An ice cream wrapper can be designed to contain seeds and liquefy at room temperature so that when thrown away, it not only dissolves safely into the ground but also supports the growth of plant-life.

Eco-effective business models

To create eco-effective industrial systems however, we may need to rethink existing business models. Historically, for example, manufacturers have focused on the sale of their product as their end

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goal. After the sale has been closed, the product passes into the hands of the consumer and is no longer my problem. Producers of technical nutrients see things differently however: they want to regain access to the nutrient so that the full cradle-to-cradle cycle can be completed. Under this business model, manufacturers lease products such as televisions, cars or washing machines to consumers for a certain period of time. At the end of this time, they take the product back, recover its material nutrients and re-use them for the creation of new products, either by the same company or by a different company.

and cannot direct the flow of materials or exchange intelligence with other actors. The new eco-system will probably need to pass materials through many different hands if a full cradle-to-cradle cycle is to be achieved (see Tetra Pak article in this issue). But we are not only talking about material flows: we also need supporting information and finance networks. For example, manufacturers will require information from suppliers concerning the exact composition of their intermediate products and disassembly capabilities at recovery sites; customers will need information on how to deal with the product after its use; recyclers will need information on appropriate dismantling processes and material composition. Sometimes these information and financial flows may best be organized by a third party not involved in material flows. For example a chemical company producing a particular dye may want to keep the detailed formulation of this dye secret for competitive reasons. But a fabric manufacturer wanting to use this dye will want to know that its formulation is compatible with the requirements of its metabolic cycle. The problem can be solved if a third party acts as a go-between, analyzing and certifying the formulation as a biological nutrient while ensuring the safe handling of proprietary information. Such information exchanges may also deliver important spin-off benefits. By establishing a coherent network of information flows amongst actors in the material flow chain, they open up a new learning curve: the continual accumulation of product, material and process knowledge that forms the basis for true upcycling. This continuously accumulating intelligence has a double value. First, it can become a source of added value to products and services. Second, it can support the establishment of complete industrial eco-systems with long-term growth potential ecosystems which can utilize materials in ways that maintain or increase their value and productivity over time.

Cradle -to-cradle design celebrates consumption and allows for economic growth. It is positive rather than negative. But it needs new industrial eco-systems to work.
Under this leasing model the product is turned into a service: consumers receive the services delivered by the product while the manufacturer maintains ownership of its valuable material assets for their continual reuse. Consumers never assume material liability for the product or its constituent materials. The leasing model also has marketing implications. It turns intermittent and largely isolated transactions into ongoing relationships: at the end of each lease period the manufacturer will offer the customer a new lease, and so on through many product life cycles. Creating effective technical nutrient flows will meanwhile require the development of new industrial eco-systems: it cannot happen without the formation of collaborative business structures able to coordinate the flow of materials and information throughout the products life cycle. This is a far cry from todays status quo where individual businesses have control over only a small portion of the material flow system of which their product is a part

Conclusion
Cradle-to-cradle industrial ecosystems hold out positive possibilities on many different fronts. They open up opportunities for reduced costs and new revenue streams, and for richer, more lasting customer/supplier relationships. Coherent

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iological and technical metabolic systems will b ensure the continuing availability of raw materials for industrial processes.

Cradle -to-cradle ecos ystems will help to reduce costs, increase revenue streams and create richer customer relationships while ensuring continuing availability of materials.
In the area of technical metabolism, material reprocessing will be conducted by industry, generating added employment and further economic activity: according to some estimates, a quarter of all new economic growth will be driven by such technology innovations over the coming decades. Within biological metabolism, material reprocessing by ecological processes will result in the regeneration and replenishment of natural systems. The net result is that we have the foundations for a positive recoupling of the relationship between ecology and economy.

Further Reading Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough & Michael Braungart, North Point Press2003. Design for the Triple Top Line: New Tools for Sustainable Commerce, McDonough, W.; Braungart, M. 2002.International Journal of Corporate Sustainability, Corporate Environmental Strategy (3) 251258. Verlag: Elsevier Science Inc. An online version of this article can be found at http://www. mcdonough.com/writings/design_for_triple.htm Approaching zero emissions: Cradle-to-cradle design: creating healthy emissions a strategy for eco-effective product and system design, Michael Braungart, William McDonough and Andrew Bollinger. Journal of Cleaner Production Volume 15, Issues 1314, September 2007, Pages 13371348 See also the Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency EPEA (www.epea.com) and MBDC (www.mbdc.com)

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