The 20th century industrial model follows a linear course -- what many people now call "cradle to grave" -- meaning that products we manufacture die when they're no longer useful to their owner, sent to a point of no return in a landfill somewhere. It's a model that epitomizes a wasteful and unsustainable system. In a sustainable industrial world, we take that fatal end point and reconnect it to the beginning, closing the loop and creating the possibility of reusing those dying industrial ingredients to manufacture a new generation of useful items. Instead of a linear "cradle to grave" model, we now have a cyclical "cradle to cradle" model.

In their book, Cradle to Cradle, William McDonough and Michael Braungart illustrate the potential of closed loop manufacturing to bring about a new industrial revolution, free of waste and pollution, which promises a sustainable material civilization. It's an idea that's been widely adopted by sustainable designers and architects, developed into certification criteria for sustainable products, and used as a clear and basic teaching tool for comparing the practices we need to leave behind with the ones that can carry us well into the future.

Why Density is Green and Closed-Loop Cities

Cradle to Cradle Certified

Biomimicry 101

Cradle to Cradle Design and Intelligent Materials Pooling

Sustainable Products, Sustainable Companies

Cradle to Cradle Home Competition Winners

River Rouge and Neobiological Industry