On the 1st and 2nd of November, the dutch city of Maastricht and 650 participants were witnesses to Planet Prosperity Foundation's coming out party- 'Let's Cradle', an ambitious 2-day congress aiming to bring the Cradle to Cradle (C2C) concept to the forefront of dutch ecological and economical development.
Over 2 days, sessions showcased C2C products, projects and ideas by speakers representing the worlds of business, government and academia. Enthusiasm among participants ran high.
Highlights included the opening speech by Jacqueline Cramer, the dutch Minister of the Environment and Spatial Planning, in which she asserted the governments commitment towards the C2C concept, the announcement of a Cradle to Cradle Floriade, World Horticultural Fair in 2012, the release of the dutch edition of the Cradle to Cradle book and the regionally produced organic catering ("cradelicious!").
But probably the highest moments of the event were the motivational speeches given by Professor Michael Braungart, the chemist behind the C2C concept itself, whose ideas and sense of humour seemed to leave the biggest impression on the audience.
The most significant difference between Braungart's perspective and the conventional stance seems to lie in the definition of what should be the human impact on the planet. Whereas the traditional view calls for impact minimization and resource efficiency, the Cradle to Cradle approach calls for a complete paradigm shift of the design process towards human activity with positive impact. "Be good, not less bad".
"A Building Like a Tree,
a City Like a Forest"
Illustration by Marcela Restrepo Uribe |
In this sense, the most striking aspect of this message was, to me, its underlying humanist character, which sharply contrasts to the traditional environmentalist position on over-population. In his view, the perception of over-population is directly responsible for insufficient aid to the developing world.
"Because we think we are too many, we let [African children] die. On purpose. Because we think it is better that they are not there."- Michael Braungart
Which is why human activity needs to have a positive impact on its environment. No amount of efficiency will ever be enough. "If we try to be less bad we will always be far too many".
However, in order to achieve the positive footprint goal, Braungart recognizes the need to reinvent human production systems as we know them and calls for a "Cradle to Cradle University Program":
"We need to reinvent our academics. We need to really have a Cradle to Cradle University. We need to reinvent marketing. We need to reinvent how we understand our community with our costumer, we need to reinvent legislation, we need to reinvent education"
But in the end, Cradle to Cradle is a remarkable concept precisely because of how positive Braungart's message is, which is invaluable for inspiring people to action amongst the predominant negative outlook of our times.
"Let's celebrate human footprint. Let's support being good instead of controlling people to be less bad. Otherwise we will end up in an eco-dictatorship."
Highlights from the Cradle to Cradle Conference in The Netherlands (half of it is in Dutch, half in English)
Further reading:
