Upcycling

Martin Korndoerfer, EPEA Internationale Umweltforschung GmbH, Hamburg

„Cradle to Cradle in building processes“

Statement

The approach ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ is often heralded as the means to achieve a green and sustainable future. While in principle these approaches are not ‘bad’ they are not aiming to re-think the central paradigm of our take – make – waste linear economy. Hence, these approaches that have sufficiency and resource efficiency at their heart often fail to deliver the expected outcomes in terms of eco-effectiveness. This presentation will demonstrate that, while these approaches buy us time to change our current cradle to grave economic model, they will ultimately fail to deliver the green, healthy future they promise. In the second part of the presentation, the Cradle to Cradle® product design concept is introduced as a proposed solution to these issues. Finally the practical applicability of these design principles in building materials and the built environment is presented, along with examples where these ideas have already been successfully implemented.

Umweltwissenschaftler bei EPEA.

EPEA GmbH

Founded by Professor Dr. Michael Braungart in 1987, the Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency (EPEA) Internationale Umweltforschung GmbH works with clients worldwide to apply the Cradle to Cradle®-methodology to the design of new processes, products and services.

Materials are applied with respect for their intrinsic value and their useful afterlife in recycled or even "upcycled" products, which have value and technological sophistication that may be higher than that of their original use.  

epea-hamburg.org