Page 34 - Port Of Hamburg Magazine 04.2019

■ INNOVATIVE INDUSTRIE
When footprints become biotopes
Delivering a lecture clad in pyjamas, casually mentioned as being compostable? Chopping up furniture fabrics and munching them in muesli for his onlookers? Professor Dr. Michael Braungart enjoys provoking people. Instead of doing without, he goes for products that also serve as raw materials in a circular economy. His principle is known as Cradle to Cradle®.
The environment campaigner, chemist, prophet and inventor of Cradle to Cradle® has defined another way of achieving a good ecological balance. His phi- losophy is “The aim is not to do as little harm as pos- sible with products but to derive the greatest bene- fit from them through further utilization.”
WASTE AS NUTRIENT
Braungart has no problem with surplus – provided the materials are kept within a circulation. Rubbish is nutrient. The ecological footprint can be as large as it likes. Seen in this way, it is just a biotope of the sa- me size. From cradle to cradle – the principle sounds like Perpetuum Mobile. In Braungart’s view, this is the future. “A product that becomes waste has a problem on quality. We need to discover things an- ew,” contends the professor.
His idea is that all consumable items such as toilet paper, clothing, packagings, must be designed so that they completely revert to biological systems without being contaminated with pollutants. Everything used, such as refrigerators, furniture or smartphones, must return to circulation as raw ma- terial. “Instead of building up a perfect waste dispo- sal business, the aim is to design materials from the outset so that these are either biodegradable or re- main in the ‘technosphere’,” says Dr Braungart.
His idea has already caused some products to be re- invented. An impressive variety stands on the shel- ves in the conference room of his consultancy firm: Sneakers by international trendsetters, cleaning agents, discounter textiles, beer, drugstore lines, cosmetics and more. The Maersk shipping group has applied the Cradle to Cradle® principle to ship- building. The ‘Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller’, a mega- containership 400 metres long, 59 metres wide, weighing 60,000 tons and of innovative design, is one example. She was built to transport 18,270 con- tainers between China and Europe. Edible seat co- vers can be found in the Airbus A380.
USE INSTEAD OF PURCHASE
Instead of buying and discarding technical ap- pliances, frequently before these are actually kaput, customers should sign contracts for using these.
You acquire a total number of kilometres instead of a car; instead of a window, 25 years of a view, plus in- sulation; instead of a house, a defined period of hea- ted living in intact premises. This gives suppliers an incentive to design their products to be long-lasting and energy-saving.
PROFESSOR DR. MICHAEL BRAUNGART
Zur Person
Professor Dr Michael Braungart studied chemistry and process technology. In the 1980s he campaigned for the environmental organization Greenpeace. In 1985 he gained a doctorate in chemistry at the University of Hanover. In 1987 Greenpeace founded EPEA to develop solutions for complex environmental problems. Since then, he has been working in research and consultancy for ecologically effective products. He is co-founder and scientific head of McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC) in Charlottesville, Virginia (USA); co-founder and scientific head of Hamburg Environment Institute (HUI); and heads Braungart Consulting in Hamburg. He worked at several universities in Germany and elsewhere as a lecturer and professor. Michael Braungart has received a number of awards for his own and his colleagues’ work. Braungart’s activities currently concentrate on his professorship in Lüneburg.
34 | Port of Hamburg Magazine | December 2019
© Professor. Dr. Braungart