Circular Economy / Cradle to Cradle

Combating raw material scarcity with continous cycles

The Cradle to Cradle® concept (C2C) codeveloped by the German chemist Michael Braungart and architect William McDonough describes the principle of two continuous cycles (circular economy). Nondurable consumer goods are biodegradable and return to the natural nutrient cycle. Durable consumer goods are broken down into separate raw materials after use and returned to a technical cycle. Material quality is retained, so downcycling is avoided. All ingredients are chemically safe and recyclable. There is no waste in the conventional sense – only reusable nutrients.

 

Cradle to Cradle brings advantages for the construction industry

As the link between investors, architects and product manufacturers, Drees & Sommer provides clients with the opportunity to adopt innovations in design, construction and operation. At the same time, we offer extensive security that the value of their property will be maintained in the medium and long term.

Exhibition booth – inspired by Cradle to Cradle

 

Cradle to Cradle® and the Circular Economy enable us to make future-proofed material decisions today. This applies to buildings and even more so to temporary buildings such as exhibition stands.

Building Material Scout

We work with the Building Material Scout (BMS), a service platform for healthy building products. The BMS database now contains more than 34,000 of them. It also contains valuable information for sustainable construction projects.

 

EPEA GmbH – Part of Drees & Sommer

Since 2019, Drees & Sommer and the former EPEA Internationale Umweltforschung GmbH have been working together – with the aim of establishing the Cradle to Cradle design principles for the Circular Economy in all industries. EPEA's materials expertise forms the basis for optimizing products from the molecular to the modular level. This is attractive not only from an ecological but also from an economic point of view.

Do you have questions regarding Cradle to Cradle?

Christoph Löffler Senior Consultant

christoph.loeffler@epea.com

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