Cradle to Cradle

Sustainable and resource-saving production with the cradle-to-cradle principle

In the light of increasingly scarcer and more expensive raw resources the willingness to changeover to sustainable and resource-saving production is growing in many companies. In this context a pioneering approach that is already realized in many international companies is the concept of cradle to cradle (C2C) from Prof. Dr. Michael Braungart the founder and director of the consulting institute EPEA.
The C2C approach is an entrepreneurial concept of innovation that redefines quality for the environment, economy and society. It is about effective solutions for a company footprint based on the following principles:

• real material cycles without waste,
• products with positive defined ingredients,
• use of renewable energy as well as
• an active supporting of diversity in conceptual and technical solutions.

In the C2C-approach these principles should be integrated in the company’s philosophy, the structures and procedures and finally in the products themselves.
If a company produces a C2C-certified product, like i.e. Puma’s InCycle, it has ensured that all toxic, health- and environmental harmful materials have been eliminated from the manufacturing process and were replaced by safe materials. If all product materials are safe and therefore not regulated by law, then all safety and material storage requirements cease to apply as well as the time needed for appropriate training and associated costs. Furthermore, all materials can be recycled or composted – the waste-free product has been achieved. So i.e. PUMA has only used 26 non-toxic substances for its C2C-sneakers instead of the previous approx. 360 individual chemical substances.

Important benefits for the companies are:

Cost-saving

• With the abandonment of toxic ingredients the costs for work safety for personal protective equipment, risk assessments, training, examination by occupational health physician etc. sink.
• The elimination of harmful emissions reduces the costs for environmental protection measures, because for example expensive filter units to prevent emissions in the water/air can be waived.
• Cost-efficient construction through the elimination of stricter storage regulations for hazardous substances.
• Sinking procurement costs through continuous recycling and the recovery of raw resources.
• Sinking disposal costs, since less and less waste and in particular toxic wastes are generated.
• Energy costs are saved with the implementation of renewable energy sources in the production processes.

Independence

• Recovery of raw resources from recycled products decouples the procurement from the raw resources markets and their dictating of prices.
• Special selection of suppliers prevents the infiltration of product contamination and the risk of image damage.

Legal certainty

• The detection of and the abandonment of toxic substances secures the company. Thus the difficult to assess liability- and market risks through various provisions of EU law (REACH, RoHS, CLP, etc.) are omitted.
• This certainty is also given by new legal regulations. For those that only use environmental and human-friendly materials from the outset, will not be disadvantaged from new threshold values.