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Three masters students
took a road trip from
Karlskrona, a small naval
city in the South of Sweden to The Netherlands on a mission to help
further the development of the
Cradle to Cradle (C2C) concept.
Applying this concept means a change in production as a whole, from
a linear production process to a circular one, where the aim is to
create a closed loop of production: both natural and industrialized
products can be dissembled and each part re-used by nature or
industry. In the C2C concept, waste becomes a new product or goes
back as food for natural systems;
C2C therefore offers a complete sustainable solution.
Coming from three corners of the Earth; Brazil, Canada and The
Netherlands; Augusto, Karen and Freek are taking their masters in
Strategic Leadership Towards Sustainability at Blekinge Tekniska
Högskola in Sweden. The students got in touch with Enviu via Freek,
who had been in contact with Enviu earlier in 2007 while searching
for an internship. The aim of the assignment is to research what a
successful C2C society looks like, including investigating the roles
of organizations within this society. To fully gain insight and
relevant knowledge for their assignment they decided to come to
where C2C has been intensely engaged; The Netherlands. One of their
stops was at the Enviu office where, together with Enviu employees
and volunteers, a dialogue was held to understand the current
situation regarding realistically applying the concept. During their
trip they had conversations with people working at many different
levels of society: government, business and academia, and have found
that there are many questions with respect to the consolidation of
Cradle-to-cradle concept. Now they will begin their research by
analyzing some of these questions.
As the students explain, “the C2C philosophy is not a new idea but
an old concept presented in a new package, lots of things are
happening around C2C because the beauty of the package communicates
to a wider audience”. The Netherlands has a vision of embracing the
C2C concept driven by enthusiastic government representatives
including the current minister for VROM. There is an ambition to
start C2C production but the lack of knowledge and experience is
making this ambition difficult to realize. However despite the lack
of knowledge and action the communication along with desire is high.
These factors combined with a small but steadily growing network
indicates that progress is palpable. The students emphasize that the
realization of a real C2C industry is realistic but will take many
years to achieve. Realization will require collaboration across many
different levels of society. Such a shift will require re-education
in both the production thinking, from linear to circular, but also
within the technical aspects and actual production process, as well
as consumer behavior. This is the goal of these three students; to
support the first steps of the shift in the production process from
linear to circular by identifying which changes this requires in
society, and which opportunities this can lead to for companies, new
and existing.
You can track their progress on their wiki at: http://kafthesis.pbwiki.com/.
You can track their progress on their wiki at:
http://kafthesis.pbwiki.com
More info on Cradle to Cradle:
Watch also the documentaries of Tegenlicht, VPRO:
www.vpro.nl/programma/tegenlicht/afleveringen/30458986/
www.vpro.nl/programma/tegenlicht/afleveringen/37061538/
Events:
28.02.08:
Cradle to
Cradle materials work shop in Venlo,
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