Nutrient Cycles

Cradle to Cradle Design distinguishes between two types of products depending on their behavior during use:

Products of Consumption

Products of Service

Products of Consumption are Biological Nutrients in the Biological Cycle

Products of consumption typically dissipate into the environment through the course of their use. They are designed so their degradation products (which result from digestion, abrasion, dilution in air, water or soil, etc.) can support the biological systems they reach. As defined biological nutrients, they are absorbed by and further nourish organisms and ecosystems.

Designing products of consumption to function as biological nutrients requires a detailed assessment of the constituent materials. These assessments review properties like toxicity to potentially exposed organisms, toxicity to food chains, and effects on the succession of generations. In general, they evaluate the extent to which the materials function as nutrients by the renewing biological resources (via agriculture, forestry or gardening) for the next generations of products of consumption.

Typical products of consumption are detergents, fabrics, food, cosmetics, biodegradable fibres, brake pads and tires.

Products of Service are Technical Nutrients in the Technical Cycle

Products of service are typically stable during their use. They are made of defined technical nutrients. After use, they are available again as defined technical nutrients after mechanical or chemical dismantling. Tracking and collecting products of service for technical nutrient recovery is assured by their inclusion in a service concept sales model. Under this model, the retailer of the product of service sells only the service the product provides and leases the materials which provide that service to the customer.

The assessment of these materials includes the stability of the materials (off-gassing, oxidation, etc.) during use and their suitability for continuous use and recovery as defined technical nutrients.

Typical products of service include office furniture, carpets, electric and electronic appliances, materially stable parts of automotives and energy supply devices.

More on the concept of products of consumption and service.

Intelligent Materials Pooling

Making materials available as nutrients, especially of technical nutrients, again and again requires:

Recognising these materials or their development as such (Research and Development);

Mapping the nutrient flow (Material Flow Management); and

Developing the technology for dismantling and regenerating these technical nutrients.

Making use of synergies among owners, producers and users of key materials can overcome economic and motivation thresholds, which would otherwise jeopardize effective nutrient recovery. Leveraging these synergies is the function of Intelligent Materials Pooling.

Intelligent Materials Pooling is a collaborative, business-to-business approach. Partners in an intelligent materials pool agree to share access to a common supply of a particular high-tech, high-quality material, pooling information and purchasing power to generate a healthy system of closed loop material flows. As partners share knowledge and resources, they develop a shared commitment to using the healthiest, highest quality materials in their products. Together, they form a value-based business community focused on eliminating the concept of waste from manufacturing cycles.

Ultimately, Intelligent Materials Pooling creates life support systems for sustainable business. Analogies develop between a technical metabolism, on the one hand, and open environmental and biological systems on the other hand: While nature manages the cycles of the biological metabolism, an Intelligent Materials Pooling is a nutrient management system for the technical metabolism.