What is Cradle to Cradle?

Cradle to Cradle^SM thinking suggests that everything we create can contribute positively to society, the economy, and the environment. This thinking was developed and popularized by architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart in their 2002 book, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.

The William McDonough + Partners team uses Cradle to Cradle thinking to guide design and materials selection for the new Make It Right homes. We want the products and construction methods used at Make It Right to be safe for people and safe for the places we live and the planet at large.

Product selections for the homes are based on Cradle to Cradle thinking which sees materials as nutrients and recognizes two safe metabolisms in which they flow:

MBDC, founded in 1995, put these ideas into practice through the rigorous chemical analysis of products ranging from household cleaners to furniture to construction materials.

MBDC offers Cradle to Cradle^SM Certification that assesses products based on five metrics. There are more than 150 Cradle to Cradle Certified^CM products at this time (you can see the growing list at www.c2ccertified.com ).

Examples of Cradle to Cradle products used at Make It Right

EcoWorx Performance Broadloom™ carpet
This residential Broadloom carpet from Shaw Industries is a technical nutrient that helps decrease the amount of raw materials used in manufacturing due to its recyclability in a closed-loop process. Shaw will collect and recycle used EcoWorx Performance Broadloom, at no additional charge to the customer.

TimberSIL® Wood Products
TimberSIL wood treatment not only replaces the hazardous copper, chromium, and arsenic-based preservatives that were used in the past, but it also outperforms them in the areas of leaching, corrosion, and toxicity. The patented TimberSIL formulation and barrier process locks in its wood protection benefits using biological nutrients in a heat processing technique, and the wood can be safely reused or composted.

Earthtex® Brand fabrics
Twitchell® Corporation's Earthtex® fabric is a technical nutrient that is free of PVC, emits no VOCs, and is 100% recyclable. The fabric was originally used as tenting for Pink, a Make It Right fundraiser. This same fabric is now being recycled into tote bags and other merchandise, with profits from the sale benefiting Make It Right's construction of houses.

Cradle to Cradle^SM is a service mark of MBDC. Cradle to Cradle Certified^CM is a certification mark of MBDC.