Cradle to Cradle Design & Intelligent Materials Pooling in Practice
June 6, 2005 Menlo Park, California
Prof. Dr. Michael Braungart
Introduction to the Principles & Potential of Intelligent Materials Pooling
Intelligent Materials Pooling A System of Nutrient Management for
the Biological & Technical Metabolisms
Intelligent Materials Pooling
Collaborative approach involving multiple companies willing to pool purchasing power in order to entirely eliminate hazardous material flows common to a number of companies in the industrial metabolism.
Intelligent Materials PoolingNation-Building Analogy
Intelligent Materials PoolingPhase 1
Creating Strength:
• Identify partners
• Identify substances to eliminate
Intelligent Materials PoolingPhase 2
Using Strength:
Develop a common list of preferred intelligent materials (i.e. positve purchasing and procurement list)
– may include eco-effective polymers and additives, alloys, building materials, etc.
Intelligent Materials PoolingPhase 3
Define Flows:
• Define use periods for products and services
• IMP uses high quality materials, becoming a virtual ‘materials bank’
IMP Material Flows
Glass Pooling
• Automotive windshield glass– PVC membrane between two layers of glass– 12% of Automotive shredder residue in U.S.– 30% recycled in Europe
• Bottles and Containers– 14% soda, 9% lime, 3.7% magnesia, 0.3%
alumina – 26.3% recycled in U.S.
• Halogen bulbs– 24.5% alumina, 10.5% magnesia, 0.5% soda
Steel Pooling
• Uses– Automotive,
Construction, Appliances, etc.
• Additives:– Chromium, Nickel,
Molybdenum, Niobium, Copper, Bismuth, Antimony, Manganese, Vanadium, Tungsten, Cobalt
Polyester / PET Pooling
• Electrical applications (fiber optics)
• Auto parts
• Packaging (bottles, bags, etc.)
• Fibers & textiles
• Films (windows, etc.)
Polyester / PET Pooling
• Most polyester catalyzed with antimony contains an average of 150-200 mg/kg.
• The Öko-Tex Standard 100 threshold value for antimony is 10 mg/kg (i.e. 10 ppm).
• The sportswear industry is increasingly using recycled (i.e. downcycled) post-consumer fibers
– PET plastic soda bottles for fleece textiles.
• Is it designed to wear against your skin?!
IMP Advantages
• Generates community culture across companies offering new ways of doing business
• Leverages collaboration across industries and companies– Information sharing– Cost sharing
• Takes advantage of best materials, not just cheapest
• Moves competitive focus to design value, not material cheapness
Material ConneXion
Where professionals - architects, engineers, industrial and interior designers, manufacturers - access specifications and manufacturers’ contacts for the latest, most innovative materials and processes from around the world through their on-line database or physical library.
www.materialconnexion.com
NASA’s Smart Materials & Structures
• Seeks to apply multi-functional capabilities to existing and new materials and structures
• Smart materials and structures are those which can sense external stimuli, via internal sensing and/or actuation, and respond with active control to that stimuli in real or near-real time
• Current activities in the field range from the design, fabrication, and test of fully integrated structural systems to enabling research in individual discipline areas
http://www.nttc.edu/techmart/technology.asp?technology_id=10, http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast01mar_1.htm, http://www.darpa.mil/dso/thrust/matdev/smartmat/objective.html
Prof. Dr. Michael Braungart
McDonough BraungartDesign Chemistrywww.mbdc.com
EPEA Internationale
Umweltforschung
www.epea.com