Cradle to Cradle Certification
Filed Under: Environmental News on July 18, 2009
McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry has a new certification program called Cradle to Cradle Certification for materials and products. The certification has four levels of achievement, similar to the LEED program for buildings: Basic, Silver, Gold, or Platinum.
A Cradle to Cradle Certified product is measured by several factors to achieve this certification. The materials to make the product are gaged by their environmental impact, sustainability, etc. as well as how utilized/re-utilized they are (aka how much recycled material goes into making them and how recyclable they are after use). The certification also tests the amount of energy used to produce the product (including its source: renewable or not), the efficiency of water use (if any) in making the product, and so forth.
The certification is meant to be a sort of United Laboratories (UL) listing for how “green” a product really is.
You know what the UL is, right? Ya, it’s that totally non-governmental agency that everyone trusts to certify that electrical products are safe for use. I’m hoping something like this Cradle to Cradle idea catches on for green before some government bureaucrat decides it’s his job to decide what’s “green” and what’s not. Probably based on criteria that has little to do with the environment and everything to do with politics…
MBDC is a Virginia-based firm, founded in 1995, that specializes in intelligent design and eco-effective solutions for manufacture. The firm’s founders, William McDonough and Michael Braungart, work to show companies how to produce products and systems that contribute to both economic and environmental prosperity.
You can find out more about Cradle to Cradle Certification by visiting the MBDC website at this link.
This certification sounds good. Let’s hope they also do not accept fundings from manufacturers – that could warp their analysis of whether a product should or should not be certified eco-friendly or energy-saving.
Well, the way it works is the businesses who want the C2C certification pay these guys to check them and give the cert. The controlling factor here is the perception of value in the C2C cert itself.
If people start to think that it’s a bunk (greenwashing) label, they won’t care if anyone has the label. Thus companies won’t worry about getting it. Thus the C2C people are out of a job. It’s in their own self-interest to be stringent. Just as the LEED building certifiers are and United Laboratories are and how Consumer Reports are. All of those groups receive money either directly for the testing or as advertising.
It all comes down to the most important part of the market: consumers. :)