C2C Design: A Symbol of Design Failure

C2C Design A Symbol of Design Failure
C2C, it stands for Cradle-To-Cradle, and it is the emerging green-friendly standard of industrial design, reports Rebecca Smith in The Wall Street Journal.

"Pollution is a symbol of design failure," says architect William McDonough, who along with chemist Michael Braungart set forth the C2C manifesto in their book, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.

"We want clean production that's based on a regenerative technology," says William. By that he means developing products "in the two main cradle-to-cradle categories -- 'biological nutrients,' such as those made from plants that can be returned to the earth and 'technical nutrients' like those made from metals and plastics that can be recycled."

Architects are getting into C2C in a big way -- in fact, a total of 625 C2C home designs recently were entered in a competition, including one featuring a "photovoltaic 'skin' ... that produces electricity."

Office furniture designers, such as Steelcase, are also embracing the C2C trend.

Steelcase's Think chair, for example, "is 99 percent recyclable," and made without "benzene, lead, mercury or solvents." Not only that, the chair is "made at factories that buy 'green,' or renewable power, from sources like wind turbines and solar panels." Shaw Industries, "the nation's biggest carpet maker.