How can design improve life?
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About the video: ‘How can design improve life?’
Rachel Carson first drew attention to the chemical industry’s harmful effects on nature with her book ‘Silent Spring’ (1962). Michael Braungart says that it is only now, two generations later, that science is finally developing life-enhancing, rather than life-destroying, industrial systems. He describes what he and architect Bill McDonough call ‘cradle to cradle’ design which uses component parts that can be reintroduced into the manufacturing process at the end of a product’s lifetime. Cradle to cradle ‘eliminates the concept of waste,’ says Braungart, freeing us from the guilt language associated with much of the ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ message championed by greens. See also: William McDonough
Total views: 9,546
Filmed: New York City, USA on 22 April 2005
Credits: Interviewer - Marcus Morrell Camera and Editor - Marcus Morrell
Copyright © 2005 Big Picture TV
About Michael Braungart
Professor Braungart is a chemist and the founder of EPEA, the Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency in Hamburg, Germany. He is also co-founder of MBDC, McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry, based in Charlottesville, Virginia.
He’ s currently a professor of Process Engineering at the University of Applied Sciences in Suderburg (Fachhochschule Nordostniedersachsen), also serving as director of an interdisciplinary materials flow management masters program.
He lectures widely on topics such as eco-efficient design, eco-effectiveness, Cradle-to-Cradle and Intelligent Materials Pooling.
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