UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

OF SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES
Alubijid | Cagayan de Oro | Claveria | Jasaan | Oroquieta | Panaon

LESSON 4
SUSTAINABILITY AND CRADLE-TO-CRADLE
DESIGN
Engr. Richelle A. Ogdiman
Instructor
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY
USPT-Claveria
WELCOME TO OUR CLASS!
Todays Intended Learning Outcome:
❑Compare and contrast cradle-to-grave model and
cradle-to-cradle model.
❑ Solve environmental problems with the application
of cradle -to-cradle design concept.
INTRODUCTION
❑ The prosperity of the Western world can be considered
to be largely a product of the Indus- trial Revolution.
❑ While the industrialization of the past two centuries
produced enormous benefits, it also left us with a legacy
of unintended and negative consequences: vast
quantities of waste, the depletion of natural resources,
and the contamination of people and ecosystems with
toxic substances dispersed throughout the planet.
Framework for Sustainability
❑ In 1989, a framework for sustainability called
The Natural Step emerged from Sweden
through the efforts of Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt,
a leading Swedish oncologist
❑ This framework provides a set of four system
conditions that define a sustainable society
based on the laws of thermodynamics and
natural cycles.
Framework for Sustainability
❑ The Natural Step System Conditions consider
the Earth as a closed system for materials and
❑ as an open system for energy that sustains
life through a complex interactive network of
material cycles
❑ that uses solar energy to counteract the
tendency of materials to dissipate and
otherwise increase in entropy.
Framework for Sustainability
For a society to be sustainable, nature must not be
subjected to the following systematically increasing
processes:
1. Extracting concentrations of substances from the
Earth’s crust
2. Building up concentrations of human-made
compounds in nature
3. Utilizing renewable resources at rates faster than
they are regenerated and reducing the productive
capacity of nature
4. People are able to meet their needs worldwide
Framework for Sustainability

Fig. 1 Ecological aspects of The Natural Step System Conditions.

(Illustrated by Larry Chalfan and Lauren Heine)
Framework for Sustainability
❑ Materials flow in a closed system comprised of two loops.
❑ The outer loop represents the cycling of materials within
earth’s ecosystems.
❑ The inner loop represents cycling within the
industrial/economic system. Arrow 1 represents the
extraction of natural resources for use in the
industrial/economic system.
❑ In a sustainable society, the rate of natural resource
extraction equals the rate of regeneration.
❑ Arrows 2 and 3 represent the extraction and resettling of
materials from the earth’s crust, primarily fossil fuel and
mined materials.
Framework for Sustainability
❑ In a sustainable society, material extraction from the earth’s
crust will be displaced by the use of recycled and recyclable
materials.
❑ Arrows 4 and 5 represent substances that flow from the
industrial/economic system to the greater ecosystem.
❑ Substances that assimilate quickly without harm are
represented by Arrow 4. Arrow 5 represents substances
that are toxic, persistent, bioaccumulative, or otherwise
cause harm to humans or the environment.
❑ In a sustainable society, Arrow 5 will disappear
Cradle-to-Cradle Design
❑ The term “cradle - to - cradle was coined in the
1970s by Walter Stahel and Michael Braungart.
❑ The key principles of cradle-to-cradle design were
first systematically outlined as the Intelligent
Product System (IPS) by Braugart et al. in 1992
and further developed and articulated by Michael
Braungart and William McDonough in 2002 in
their book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way
We Make Things.
Cradle-to-Cradle Design
Cradle-to-cradle design defines two metabolisms
within which materials are conceived as nutrients
circulating benignly and productively through
metabolisms.
Biological nutrients cycle
within biological metabolisms,
and technical nutrients cycle
within technical metabolisms.
Cradle-to-Cradle Design
Biological metabolism
the system of natural processes that supports life.

Biological processes
are cyclical, ultimately fueled by the energy of the sun, and
include the biodegradation of organic materials and their
incorporation into organisms.

Biological nutrients
Materials that contribute to the productivity of biological
metabolisms.
Cradle-to-Cradle Design
• Products of industry made from biological
nutrients can be integrated into natural or
engineered biological metabolisms, including
water treatment processes and organic
processing systems such as composting or
anaerobic digestion.
• Industry can also mimic natural processes by
creating technical metabolisms that circulate
technical nutrients.
Cradle-to-Cradle Design
• Technical nutrients are typically nonrenewable
and they are valuable for their performance
qualities. Examples include metals such as copper
or aluminum.
• When designed in cradle-to-cradle systems,
technical nutrients can be recovered and recycled
over and over—without degrading their quality
and without harm to handlers—into similar or
dissimilar products.
Cradle-to-Cradle Design
Cradle-to-cradle design, as described by McDonough
and Braungart, uses a model of human industry
based on three design principles derived from
natural systems.
1). Use current
solar income

2. Celebrate diversity
3. Waste equals food
Cradle-to-Cradle Design
❑ Some people call for a strategy of eco-efficiency: to
reduce the amount of resources used and to
generate less waste in industrial activities.
❑ But eco-efficiency alone is not a strong enough
strategy for sustainability.
❑ Improvements in eco-efficiency are often quickly
overwhelmed by increases in demand.
❑ Example;
• improvement in automobile fuel efficiency has been
offset by an increase in the number of cars on the
roads and the number of miles driven.
Cradle-to-Cradle Design
❑ Cradle-to-cradle design calls for eco-
effectiveness, which is analogous to healing the
wound and supporting the health of the whole
body.
❑ Eco-effectiveness is concerned with increasing
cyclical material flows (hence “effectiveness”), so
waste equals food.
Cradle-to-Cradle Design
❑ Cradle-to-cradle thinking come as second nature to
environmental engineers, who are charged with
protecting both human health and the environment
and who learn to design material flow systems for
materials such as water and wastewater.
❑ Rather than treating the waste at the end of the pipe,
environmental engineers can use the tools of the
trade to design sustainable systems up front that
reuse valuable resources without degrading their
quality over time.
Cradle-to-Cradle Design
❑ Engineers can influence the effectiveness of
infrastructure by understanding and influencing
product design and by not considering one
without the other.
Reference
• Vesilind, Aarne; Morgan, Susan M. & Heine,
Lauren G. Introduction to Environmental
Engineering. 3rd edition. 2010.
Thank you ☺