Expert Interview - Michael Braungart

What does sustainable design mean to you?
There is no such a thing as sustainable design. It is really about a holistic quality of design or, as we call it, 'total beauty design'. Sustainability means keeping the same thing as it is. If I ask how someone's relationship with his or her partner is, would the answer ever be 'sustainable'? That's just the bare minimum. In design, it is only good design or a design that is not that good. There is no 'green design' either. A toxic product is not good design. This includes the health of a product's supply chain; when the people belonging to it are unable to earn a living, it's not good design. What's important is a design's holistic quality.

How does your work uniquely contribute to this effort?
Our contribution is that we are helping to develop products that are not "less bad" but are actually good for the environment. We want to make triple top line designs: simultaneously good for the economy, good for society, and good for the environment. For this, we help companies become free of guilt management and encourage them to innovate positively.

When you imagine a "sustainable future" what do you see? How do you feel?
We call the "sustainable future" a "Cradle to Cradle future". This means we envision a planet with plenty of food and drinks, and healthy housing and education for everyone. There is no overpopulation problem if we are able to make products and supply chain designs where everything can go into either the biological cycle or the technical cycle. We are pretty optimistic after the Mayor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, declared California to be a Cradle to Cradle state.

What is your first impression of the CLEAR project?
It is a very optimistic view of the world… to get the people from different subjects to come together. On the other hand, it is still about too much guilt management, which means still too much minimizing, reducing and avoiding. To be clear, this can be changed in the future, positively.

Do any past case studies (successes or failures) come to mind that we might learn from?
From my perspective, there many you can see on the Internet, which allows you to learn from all the examples. I suggest you look at Peter Senge from the Society of Organizational Learning in MIT University, and also Marijan Mennesma and Jan Rotmans from DRIFT.

Does scale matter? Are there distinctions when designing sustainable solutions for a village vs. a city, for example?
Myself and my team, we start at the molecular level, and then extend out to materials, to products, to complex products, to houses, and then to urban communities; and from there, to state, countries, and, finally, global solutions. For sure, the scale is critical when you want to develop solutions. Solutions, ultimately, only make sense if you can see them play out on a global scale.

If you were leading the design of a sustainable village, what would you prioritise, and why? Who would you want working with you?
Design for a sustainable village cannot have a random person to lead its design; it needs people in the village, who collectively make up the village's variety and richness. They must co-lead this process. There are good people in architecture you can reference, such as Thomas Rau, Ken Yeang, William McDonough, Graft architects in Berlin and Steven Becker from Art & Build. They all are very experienced and great to work with. We recommend them highly!

Is it possible to replicate the design of one village across different contexts? If so, which design elements would remain consistent no matter what? What would need to change on a case-by-case basis?
Replicating the design of one village is not recommended because it is just like another efficiency approach. Our motto is "Celebrate the diversity". This means that the people who live in the village define the environmental context, such as soil quality, sunlight energy income, etc. These factors can inform the design of the village and how it looks. Some elements can be replicated though, such as: how to supply energy, how to transport, how to use building materials. But overall, it should be applied case by case, so that you can focus on innovations specifically for each village. It is key not to try to make one-size-fit-all standards. It is far more about leveraging innovations in the field than trying to be 100% perfect. Otherwise, ideas will never become real. Each village can choose 3 to 5 existing innovations, and apply only these, and even 10 smaller ones, to tell stories across villages. Everyone can learn from each other, and the people can visit each other by creating a larger village network, or community.

Does culture play a part in the design of a sustainable village?
Culture plays a key role. It is all about culture. Agriculture. Horticulture. Beyond sustainability, it's about celebrating human culture and the human footprint on our planet. It is about making the village have one big beneficial footprint.

And finally, business models. Are there any you know of that could inform a more robust outcome for this initiative?
On the business models, we are not experts in business models. We are scientists. Marketing is not our biggest qualification.

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Michael Braungart

Michael Braungart was recently appointed to the Special Endowed Chair "Cradle to Cradle in relation to sustainable system innovations and transitions in theory and in practice". For two decades he has pioneered a system of product innovation known as Cradle to Cradle. He co-authored the book by the same name, as well as lecturing at numerous universities in Europe, America and Asia. As head of the scientific institute EPEA he is working with companies in almost every sector of the Dutch economy to develop Cradle to Cradle products and processes.