Beyond the Limits – «Cradle to Cradle» as an Opportunity for Innovations
Friday, 14. October 2016 | 8:30 Uhr
Speaker
Organisation
Reporting
In his presentation, Professor Michael Braungart, Managing Director of EPEA Internationale Umweltforschung GmbH [International Environmental Research] in Hamburg, took today’s recycling society severely to task.
“We are still destroying the world, just more slowly,” said the environmental researcher. He referred to the fact that only 60 percent of the product can be reused when recycling books, for example. The remaining 40 percent are still waste.
“Many materials have not been created for the biological cycle.” That is why Michael Braungart co-founded the “cradle to cradle” principle in 2002 whereby products can be 100 percent recycled. He calls the principle ‘eco-effectiveness’.
Several hundred different products worldwide like furniture, cleaning products, textiles, and many others, are proof that it works. Michael Braungart’s approach to a better world extends far beyond the production of products.
The following video reveals what the Professor at the Universities of Rotterdam, Enschede, and Lüneburg thinks about old-age pension and how Generation Y can help to implement his vision.
Michael Braungart
He is Managing Director of EPEA Internationale Umweltforschung GmbH, the cradle of ‘Cradle to Cradle’. He is also co-founder and Scientific Director of McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC) in Charlottesville, Virginia (USA) and Scientific Director of the Umweltinstitut e.V. Hamburg (HUI). He has pioneered the ‘Cradle to Cradle’ design concept for decades.
He works with many organizations and companies from various industries and has developed tools to create ecologically effective products, business systems, and intelligent materials pooling.
Prof. Michael Braungart holds the ‘Cradle to Cradle’ Chair for Innovation and Quality at Erasmus University’s Rotterdam School of Management (RSM) and is a Professor at Leuphana University in Lüneburg, at Twente University in Enschede, and at the Technical University Delft.
As part of Excellence Initiative, he was distinguished with an Honorary Professorship by the Technical University Munich.
