Partnership Establishes Global Platform for Cradle to CradleSM Materials and Design
Material ConneXion, Inc., McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry, LLC (MBDC) and the Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency (EPEA) announced a groundbreaking strategic collaboration to create a global platform for developing innovative sustainable materials and products. Together, they will provide services that will help companies expand their ability to innovate and create higher-quality, more sustainable products and processes, while increasing their profitability.
“Material ConneXion’s unparalleled material expertise, commitment to sustainability, and global reach make them the perfect partner for this collaboration,” said MBDC co-founder William McDonough.
The relationship will help to promote and disseminate Cradle to Cradle design principles by providing greater global access to Cradle to Cradle material information, certification and product development. As of January 2008, Material ConneXion’s libraries in New York, Milan, Cologne and Bangkok will feature Cradle to Cradle Assessed and Certified materials, and, in collaboration with MBDC and EPEA, Material ConneXion will offer Cradle to Cradle Certification, and Cradle to Cradle product development.
“We are thrilled to partner with such visionaries as William McDonough and Michael Braungart,” said Material ConneXion Founder and President George Beylerian, ”This truly will be an industry-changing collaboration and signals an important step forward for Cradle to Cradle design.”
Given today’s demands for more socially and environmentally conscious products and materials, it is important for companies to positively define their global impact and be leaders in environmental performance. Material ConneXion, MBDC and EPEA, each leading experts in their respective fields, offer specific knowledge in sustainable material solutions and practices, objective design recommendations, and a breadth of worldwide experience across multiple industries that can be instrumental in helping companies achieve their product goals.
“Cradle to Cradle’s promise of ‘total beauty’ begins with the right material solutions and there is no better place to find them than Material ConneXion,” said EPEA and MBDC co-founder Michael Braungart.
By pushing for better product design, smart production processes, and a greater use, re-use, and recycling of defined, ecologically intelligent materials, companies can incorporate environmentally conscious planning into their own frameworks.
To facilitate this, Material ConneXion, MBDC and EPEA will jointly offer the following services:
Workshops: Workshops will provide an understanding of Material Intelligence, Sustainability and Cradle to Cradle design principles. Workshops can be tailored to assist design teams—from large corporations to smaller forward thinking companies—in defining these concepts as they pertain to their own industry and work.
Materials Assessment, Process Evaluation and Certification:
Material assessment will provide material manufacturers within the Material ConneXion library with material assessments and the tools to achieve Cradle to Cradle Certification. Certification benchmarks the size of the environmental footprint of a product against an internationally recognized standard that will provide companies with a new marketing and selling tool as well as help them chart and realize continuous improvement over time. .
Material/Product Development Project:
This service assists companies in developing ecologically intelligent, sustainable products or materials. By leveraging the combined expertise in the field of sustainable materials and Cradle to Cradle process of the three partners, innovative sustainable products can be developed that could be a source of new and increased revenue for clients.
About Material ConneXion
Material ConneXion is the leading global platform for material innovation and solutions. The company was founded in 1997 by George M. Beylerian on the belief that Every Idea Has A Material Solution. Since then, Material ConneXion has become the trusted material advisor to Fortune 500 corporations, smaller forward-thinking companies and government agencies seeking a competitive edge through strategic material selections. With offices in New York, Milan, Cologne and Bangkok, Material ConneXion’s international network of material specialists provide a global, cross-industry perspective on materials and their potential uses.
Material ConneXion offers four indispensable assets to architects, designers, and manufacturers. The Advanced Materials Solution Team advises in the development of materials and products by providing crucial material intelligence gained through extensive research. Subscription-based Material Libraries on three continents maintain over 4,000 materials reviewed by an independent jury on a monthly basis. Material ConneXion LABS—temporary library exhibition installations—and Innovation Alerts—keep companies, universities and non-profits on the cutting-edge. New materials create innovative design solutions, provide more sustainable options, and accelerate the design development process. Dynamic material dialogue is essential to this process, and so Material ConneXion is committed to its creation through active Public Programming, including exhibitions, an annual conference on materials and design, and MATTER magazine, published quaterly. This December, Material ConneXIon will publish its second book, Ultra Materials: How Materials Innovation is Changing the World.
About MBDC (McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry, LLC.)
MBDC was founded in 1995 by internationally recognized architect/designer William McDonough together with Prof. Michael Braungart, as a strategic environmental consulting and design firm, dedicated to revolutionizing the design of products and services worldwide using Cradle to Cradle design. The pair teamed up to promote and shape what they refer to as “The Next Industrial Revolution” through the introduction of a new design paradigm called Cradle to Cradle design and the implementation of eco-effective design principles. McDonough and Braungart are co-authors of the book Cradle to Cradle – Remaking the Way We Make Things, published in 2002 by NorthPoint Press.
MBDC developed and offers the Cradle to Cradle Product Certification System that verifies manufactures’ achievements using a series of environmental and social criteria. These criteria are based on the principles of Cradle to Cradle design, developed by McDonough and Braungart. Cradle to Cradle is a service mark of MBDC.
About EPEA (Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency)
EPEA was founded in 1987 by world renowned chemist Prof. Michael Braungart as an independent scientific research institute based in Hamburg that develops Cradle to Cradle product solutions. EPEA’s interdisciplinary team aligns products to Cradle to Cradle design goals with tools that have been developed for this purpose. Cradle to Cradle design makes products possible that are economically successful, healthy for users and supportive for the environment and future generations. Their innovative design not only addresses appearance and functionality, but it also addresses the definition of their composition and enables a new dimension of quality and security of these products along with their material flow cycle. By integrating economic, social and environmental aspects, they are superior to currently produced and available products.
EPEA’s driving goal is to not only reach positive effects for end users by aiding in the development of healthy products, but also for the environment in general by way of safe products for consumption and products of service, where technical nutrients are recovered a
nd processed, based on EPEA’s Intelligent Product System (IPS). This also applies to a next generation because the resources that are mobilized for Cradle to Cradle products are maintained as such and effectively used. EPEA is a licensee of the Cradle to Cradle Product Certification System developed by MBDC.
