What’s The ’Cradle To Cradle’ Product Design Concept?

2022-03-11

In this episode... Renaud and Adrian are back to discuss 'Cradle to Cradle' product design. Sustainability is in the media a lot these days as we have global instability from Covid and war causing energy, material, and shipping cost increases (among others) and climate change and environmental damage becoming more serious leading to the need to reduce carbon emissions as well as lowering the amount of hazardous waste produced. So, traditional products that become waste at the end of their lifecycles are starting to be replaced by more sustainable ones, and one of the most sustainable product...

In this episode...

Renaud and Adrian are back to discuss 'Cradle to Cradle' product design. Sustainability is in the media a lot these days as we have global instability from Covid and war causing energy, material, and shipping cost increases (among others) and climate change and environmental damage becoming more serious leading to the need to reduce carbon emissions as well as lowering the amount of hazardous waste produced.

So, traditional products that become waste at the end of their lifecycles are starting to be replaced by more sustainable ones, and one of the most sustainable product design concepts is C2C that, theoretically, stops products from becoming waste at all.

Sit back and listen as we discuss the history of manufacturing, how it has evolved to become 'less bad' in the late 20th Century and now more sustainable in the early 21st, what's included in C2C certification, how to design Cradle to Cradle products, and the pros & cons of following this approach.

However, as the Covid situation in China becomes more serious, we start by checking in on how this could be affecting supply chains and the situation on the ground there...

Show Sections

00:00 - Greetings & introduction to the topic.

01:47 - The Covid situation in China and Hong kong.

07:45 - How we got from unsustainable (take/make/waste) to more sustainable (cradle to grave) manufacturing.

15:08 - The move to fully sustainable (cradle to cradle) manufacturing due to the failure of recycling to be sustainable.

20:22 - Key features of the C2C ethos.

25:18 - How much can manufacturers do to increase their use of renewable energy?

27:20 - C2C certification.

33:54 - C2C product examples.

36:55 - What do product designers need to keep in mind when designing a C2C product?

41:15 - Benefits of C2C.

44:55 - Drawbacks of C2C.