Cradle to Cradle Design & Intelligent Materials Pooling in Practice

June 6, 2005 Menlo Park, California

Prof. Dr. Michael Braungart

Introduction to the Principles & Potential of Intelligent Materials Pooling

Intelligent Materials Pooling A System of Nutrient Management for

the Biological & Technical Metabolisms

Intelligent Materials Pooling

Collaborative approach involving multiple companies willing to pool purchasing power in order to entirely eliminate hazardous material flows common to a number of companies in the industrial metabolism.

Intelligent Materials PoolingNation-Building Analogy

Intelligent Materials PoolingPhase 1

Creating Strength:

• Identify partners

• Identify substances to eliminate

Intelligent Materials PoolingPhase 2

Using Strength:

Develop a common list of preferred intelligent materials (i.e. positve purchasing and procurement list)

– may include eco-effective polymers and additives, alloys, building materials, etc.

Intelligent Materials PoolingPhase 3

Define Flows:

• Define use periods for products and services

• IMP uses high quality materials, becoming a virtual ‘materials bank’

IMP Material Flows

Glass Pooling

• Automotive windshield glass– PVC membrane between two layers of glass– 12% of Automotive shredder residue in U.S.– 30% recycled in Europe

• Bottles and Containers– 14% soda, 9% lime, 3.7% magnesia, 0.3%

alumina – 26.3% recycled in U.S.

• Halogen bulbs– 24.5% alumina, 10.5% magnesia, 0.5% soda

Steel Pooling

• Uses– Automotive,

Construction, Appliances, etc.

• Additives:– Chromium, Nickel,

Molybdenum, Niobium, Copper, Bismuth, Antimony, Manganese, Vanadium, Tungsten, Cobalt

Polyester / PET Pooling

• Electrical applications (fiber optics)

• Auto parts

• Packaging (bottles, bags, etc.)

• Fibers & textiles

• Films (windows, etc.)

Polyester / PET Pooling

• Most polyester catalyzed with antimony contains an average of 150-200 mg/kg.

• The Öko-Tex Standard 100 threshold value for antimony is 10 mg/kg (i.e. 10 ppm).

• The sportswear industry is increasingly using recycled (i.e. downcycled) post-consumer fibers

– PET plastic soda bottles for fleece textiles.

• Is it designed to wear against your skin?!

IMP Advantages

• Generates community culture across companies offering new ways of doing business

• Leverages collaboration across industries and companies– Information sharing– Cost sharing

• Takes advantage of best materials, not just cheapest

• Moves competitive focus to design value, not material cheapness

Material ConneXion

Where professionals - architects, engineers, industrial and interior designers, manufacturers - access specifications and manufacturers’ contacts for the latest, most innovative materials and processes from around the world through their on-line database or physical library.

www.materialconnexion.com

NASA’s Smart Materials & Structures

• Seeks to apply multi-functional capabilities to existing and new materials and structures

• Smart materials and structures are those which can sense external stimuli, via internal sensing and/or actuation, and respond with active control to that stimuli in real or near-real time

• Current activities in the field range from the design, fabrication, and test of fully integrated structural systems to enabling research in individual discipline areas

http://www.nttc.edu/techmart/technology.asp?technology_id=10, http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast01mar_1.htm, http://www.darpa.mil/dso/thrust/matdev/smartmat/objective.html

Prof. Dr. Michael Braungart

braungart@braungart.comwww.braungart.com

McDonough BraungartDesign Chemistrywww.mbdc.com

EPEA Internationale

Umweltforschung

www.epea.com