One Silly Green Goose » Books

Where is the C2C?

Poonam Sharma — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 04:17:41 +0000

Eager to know what products are currently incorporating C2C strategies after reading Cradle to Cradle, I set out to do a bit of internet research, expecting to be blown away by numerous innovative products. Instead I found a lot of criticism directed towards William McDonough for thwarting many designers eager to implement their C2C designs because of his legal ownership of the term.

Roger Cox, a Dutch attorney and ardent C2C advocate, has declared that “there’s a need for the founding fathers of C2C to change their closed and proprietary approach of C2C. Urgently.” According to a letter posted by Roger Cox on Duurzaam Gebouwd, a sustainability blog based in the Netherlands, the lack of market competition due to the exclusivity of C2C could be to blame for the relative paucity of new regenerative products on the marketplace, when compared to the massive critical acclaim generated by the book.

A listing of Cradle to Cradle Certified products and materials approved by McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC), a consulting company founded by the authors of Cradle to Cradle can be found here. Herman Miller, Steelcase and Method Products are among the list of companies with C2C Certified products. On the other hand, an extensive article about the hegemony of Michael McDonough and MBDC can be found at Fast Company.

However, similar to the case of LEED Certification for buildings and interiors, couldn’t a product or material embody the principles of C2C design without being officially certified or even referred to as a C2C design? Wouldn’t this solve the proprietary issue or is riding the wave of hype about C2C really that crucial?

Cradle to Cradle Design

Poonam Sharma — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 21:02:24 +0000

I finally read the book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
by William McDonough and Michael Braungart. The book is a must-read on many levels, but I was particularly inspired and encouraged by the fact that unlike the previous generation of sustainability manifestos that pit the economy against equity & ecology, Cradle to Cradle “sees commerce as the engine of change” and allows one to embrace their inner capitalist by proposing a sustainable world of guilt-free growth, prosperity and abundance. Instead of viewing consumer waste through the austere lens of the 3 R’s (reduce, reuse and recycle a.k.a. downcycle), McDonough and Braungart, inspired by the abundance of nature, propose the visionary idea of designing consumer products as either biological nutrients or technical nutrients.

Biological nutrients are materials or products designed to be a part of a biological cycle, or in other words, designed to be consumed by animals and/or microorganisms and eventually return to the earth (think composting).

An example of a product designed to be a biological nutrient is a biodegradable upholstery fabric, containing no harmful chemicals, that can be torn off of a chair when no longer desired and thrown on the ground to biodegrade and provide nutrients for the soil.

Technical nutrients are materials or products designed to be a part of a technical cycle, or in other words, designed for a return to industrial use as a raw material that has not lost any value since its original form (think upcycling).

Currently, recycling forces the reuse of materials and products that were not originally designed for recycling. This often results in downcycling and toxicity problems. Downcycling, means the recycled material is not as valuable as the virgin material. For example, when cars are recycled, all the metals (high ductile steel, stainless steel, copper wiring, etc) in the car are melted down together, resulting in a metal of lesser quality that can never be used to make new cars. Secondly, toxicity problems occur when the harmful chemicals that are used to create the original product are disturbed through recycling and are released into the air through off-gassing and/ or abrasion of the new recycled product.

An example of a product designed to be a technical nutrient is a television designed for easy disassembly, so that its various components (copper, plastic, and even chemicals, etc) can be easily upcycled or reused to make new televisions. This strategy may even incorporate the concept of the product of service, whereby customers purchase the service of a television for a defined period of time after which they return it to the manufacturer for a new one, as opposed to the consumer buying the television itself and then being responsible for its disposal later.

I am curious to see what products out there are already implementing this visionary idea of designing for a positive impact on the environment (as opposed to designing to minimize the negative impact). If you know of any products that are designed as biological or technical nutrients I would love to know. I am going to do a little research myself and create a list of products to post.

Reduce, Reuse, Become an Amazon Bookseller

Poonam Sharma — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 20:52:01 +0000

In the spirit of preemptive spring cleaning, I have decided to finally get rid of my old books from college that I have been needlessly clinging to in case I may want to revisit them one day. I figure that if I haven’t had the urge for the past 4 years, I probably never will. Even if by chance the urge to reminisce does come over me in the future, I think a library could successfully satisfy my nostalgia.

My lazy side just wanted to dump them all into a recycling bin and call it a day, but I decided to give them a chance at a new life by selling them on Amazon instead. I’ve never sold anything on Amazon before, so I wasn’t sure exactly how to do it at first. It turns out that it is actually really easy. I used the same account I already had set up for purchasing and simply added a “seller account” to it. I had to fill in a few extra bits of info such as the name of my new “bookstore” (to avoid thinking too hard, I just called my new bookstore Green Goose Books), my shipping preferences and my bank account info for payment. Then I just added all the books I wanted to sell, one by one. I added them easily by just entering the ISBN number on the back of the book, specifying the condition of my book and choosing the price I wanted to sell it at. It took me about 2 hours to add 40 books to my inventory. By later that evening, I had already sold 3 books! Once your books have sold you have 2 days to ship them. Amazon gives you a fixed allowance for shipping costs (paid for by the buyer) depending on whether the buyer has requested Standard, Expedited or International Shipping and regardless of what your actual shipping costs are. Amazon also subtracts a percent commission from the sale of your book (which is waived if you pay for a monthly plan).

Even if I just break even, I still think it is worth it to sell my old books on Amazon so that someone else can get some use out of them and to reduce the demand for newly printed books.

Here is an example of a book I sold to show how the financials break down: I sold a “like new” reference book for$49.99 that I had purchased brand new for $64.00. Amazon gave me $3.99 for shipping, but the actual cost of shipping was $4.99. Amazon also took a commission of $9.84. Therefore, in the end I earned $43.14. I was actually pretty happy with this sale. Unfortunately most of my book sales will not net such a profit. I have learned that textbooks, reference books and hardcovers sell the best. Since I have mostly softcover books, I will most likely earn only $2-$3 dollars per book or maybe even just break even after paying for shipping, if they sell at all. However, even if I just break even, I still think it is worth it to sell my old books on Amazon so that someone else can get some use out of them and to reduce the demand for newly printed books. Who knew becoming an Amazon bookseller could help me reduce and reuse?!