Apr., 26/As part of an initiative to investigate innovative solutions and strategies to eliminate or reduce waste, the EPA Office of Solid Waste in conjunction with McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC), is hosting a design challenge for e-commerce shipping packaging and logistics. The goal is to develop more sustainable packaging services through the design of environmentally preferable packaging and the complementary systems needed for value recovery using cradle-to-cradle principles.

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.

Cradle to Cradle Design is based on principles of Industrial Ecology and Design for Environment (DfE). Similar to industrial ecology, materials and energy flows are conceived as ‘metabolisms’ and like DfE, it proposes that we design with the environment in mind, considering all phases of the product life cycle.

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.

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The information contains background information about Cradle to Cradle Design and its application to E-Commerce Shipping Packaging and Logistics. Click here