A decade ago, when William McDonough Architects and the Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency (EPEA) developed the Hannover Principles for the 2000 World’s Fair, design for sustainability was in its infancy. While the desire to move toward a solar-powered world had gained significant momentum among the environmentally conscious by 1992, and the
ideas that inform ecological design had begun to manifest themselves in encouraging innovations in “green” architecture and technology, a coherent framework for applying sustainable design to all sectors of society had yet to emerge.

The Hannover Principles were conceived as the first iteration of this new paradigm. We knew at the time that our efforts were just a first step. Though we were striving to identify universal principles based on the enduring laws of nature, we also understood that our knowledge of the world was incomplete. So, too, was our ability to predict all the many ways in which the creativity of the world’s designers, architects, business leaders, and NGOs would push design for sustainability beyond the limits we could imagine in 1992. Thus, we saw the Principles
as a living document — a set of enduring ideals and an open system of thought that would evolve as it was put into practice.

And evolve it has. William McDonough + Partners (WM+P), McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC), and EPEA continue to use and publish the Principles in their original form. Yet, as each firm applies the Principles in the design process or uses them to guide everyday decision-making, new ideas and practices emerge. The result: The Principles remain an enduring touchstone, their rigor drives innovation, and our design paradigm continues to mature.

This process, whether it plays out in a matter of weeks or over the course of years, begets enormous creativity. The generative power of Principle six provides a good example. Principle six says Eliminate the concept of waste. In 1992 this was a radical new concept. Designers and engineers were typically focused on reducing waste, on trying to be “less bad.” The conventional wisdom held that using less energy and fewer materials and limiting the amount of toxic chemicals released into the air, water, and soil would guarantee a sustainable world.'

But Principle six demands something entirely different. Rather than attempting to mitigate the destructive effects of architecture and industry, eliminating the concept of waste demands that we begin to see our designs in a wholly positive light.

Pursuing that goal over the past decade has driven the evolution of an entirely new approach to design. When one takes seriously the idea that the concept of waste can be eliminated in the worlds of architecture, commerce, manufacturing, and transportation— indeed, in every sector of society—the purview of design shifts radically. Not only are we obliged to include the entire material world in our design considerations, we are asked to imagine materials in a whole
new way. In today’s world of trying to be “less bad,” materials typically follow a one-way path to the landfill and waste managers intervene here and there to slow down the trip from cradle to grave. But when we are no longer content with simply managing waste, we can begin to create and use materials within cradle-to-cradle systems, in which there is no waste at all. Rather than seeing materials as a waste management problem, cradle-to-cradle thinking sees materials as nutrients that cycle through either the biological metabolism or the technical metabolism. In the biological metabolism, the nutrients that support life on Earth—water, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide — flow perpetually through biological cycles of growth, decay
and rebirth. There are no waste-management problems. Instead, waste equals food. The technical metabolism is designed to mirror natural nutrient cycles; it’s a closedloop system in which valuable, high-tech synthetics and mineral resources circulate in an endless cycle of
production, recovery and reuse.

By specifying safe, healthful ingredients, designers and architects can create and use materials within these cradle-to-cradle cycles. Materials designed as biological nutrients, such as textiles for draperies, wall coverings and upholstery fabrics, can be designed to biodegrade safely and restore the soil after use, providing more positive effects, not fewer negative ones. Materials
designed as technical nutrients, such as infinitely recyclable nylon carpet fiber, can provide high-quality, high-tech ingredients for generation after generation of synthetic products—again, a harvest of value. And buildings constructed with these nutritious materials and designed to “fit” within local energy flows articulate and enhance the connection between people and nature. Already well established through the work of WM+P, MBDC, and EPEA, cradle-to-cradle thinking represents a radical, ongoing revolution in design. Its source and sustenance: The laws of nature adapted to human design in the Hannover Principles. When the Principles become practices, when industrial and architectural systems are modeled on the earth’s flows of energy and nutrients, the notion that humanity must limit its ecological footprint is turned on its head.  Indeed, as cradle-to-cradle thinking continues to be enriched by the inspired work of our colleagues at WM+P, MBDC and EPEA, we are increasingly able to design products and places that support life, that create footprints to delight in rather than lament. This changes the entire context of the design process. Instead of asking, “How do I meet today’s environmental standards?” designers at WM+P, MBDC and EPEA are asking, “How might I create more habitat, more health, more clean water, more prosperity, more delight?”

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