The C2CPortal Sleeps

I am very happy to announce that the new Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute's website is up and running. This new site will include a news section that will ultimately make the C2CPortal obsolete. So, for all of you who are interested in C2C and would like to continue to receive news updates, please start following the new site.

http://c2ccertified.org/index.php

Thank you all for supporting my project with your viewership. I cannot thank all of you enough for this amazing journey. I started this website a little over a year ago and since then it has open new doors to new adventures; I could not have hoped for anything better. Therefore, it is with great pleasure that I now put the C2CPortal to sleep.

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dwell Interview with William McDonough

"Almost exactly a year ago, you were at a very high-profile launch of the Green Products Innovation Institute in San Francisco, with the goal of establishing standards to remove toxic substances from manufacturing. What have you been able to achieve so far?"

What we announced last year is that Michael Braungart and I had decided to gift our certification process to the public. What I've been doing for the last year is working with the protocol of certification to prepare it for the public domain. It's a very, very deep assessment of chemistry, of logistics, of energy, of water, and social fairness and so it's really a quality standard—it's about total quality, not necessarily green standards. It has more to do with life than just "green something." You have logistics and economic and energy and water and people and culture—there's a cultural dimension.

So for the last year we got our scientists and our systems engineers and our advisers working with us to craft what we call version 3. But we can't put it out there unless we've really carefully reviewed it. We have to look at things like nanotechnology and genetic modification, lots of issues that are common with our clients we work with but we haven't had to deal with it in an open environment. We're very close to putting it out to public review and we have other institutes around the world that want to join us and be part of this. We also renamed it after we had the legal hurdles accomplished, it's now the Cradle-to-Cradle Product Innovation Institute.

Read more: http://www.dwell.com/articles/interview-with-bill-mcdonough.html

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Case Study: Building a Better Bottle with Replenish, by Jason Foster

Little did I know how difficult it actually is to create a bottle that has two holes in it. A bottle has never been built this way. Replenish is really the first significant redesign of a spray bottle since Roger Drackett created the first Windex bottle in 1943. Creating Replenish came with two major challenges: perfecting the valve system and finding a manufacturing approach to accommodate the integrated design.

Perfecting the valve system presented a unique challenge. There were three physical properties we had to account for. First, the concentrated pods had to be easily squeezable. Secondly, the pods had to allow for proper vent-back; the valve had to allow air to flow back into the pod after concentrated was squeezed out such that the pods could retain their shape. Thirdly, the valve had to prevent the mixed solution in the top chamber of the bottle from leaking back into the concentrate pod. Our approach to addressing these three main challenges was simply trial and error. We built iteration after iteration of the concentrate pod and valve system until we found the perfect balance to meet these three properties.

Read more: http://www.core77.com/blog/case_study/case_study_building_a_better_bottle_with_replenish_by_jason_foster_19519.asp

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“Field of Jeans” Showcases World’s First Air-Purifying Jeans

Part of “Catalytic Clothing,” an ongoing project that explores the possibility of crowdsourced environmental remediation, Field of Jeans comprises what Storey believes is the first-ever air-purifying denim. A photocatalyst on the surface of the fabric breaks down airborne pollutants when it’s exposed to light, resolving them into harmless chemicals that slough off in the wash.

With cases of asthma, especially in children, on the ascent—the U.S. spends nearly $18 billion a year treating the disease, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America—Storey wants to enlist our clothing in the fight against industrial and vehicle pollution.

Read more: http://www.ecouterre.com/field-of-jeans-showcases-worlds-first-air-purifying-dungarees/

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Interview with Adam Lowry, co-Founder of Method

Scott: Let’s put on our international travelers hats for a moment; what country do you see as a role model for the US?

Adam: Both the Netherlands and Iceland come to mind. The Netherlands very specifically has been pursuing a “cradle to cradle” policy and building out the required infrastructure to support sustainability-minded projects like recapturing used materials from the waste stream to upcycle them back into usable products. I’d love to see US policy move significantly in this direction.

Iceland is also an amazing story. I was there in 2007 and during a dinner with their President heard the story of how they went from 90% coal imports in 1980 for energy to producing 100% of their own energy needs – including fuels – today with zero energy imports, mostly through geothermal. The President told me how it was small enterprises doing this innovation on their own until the country as a whole reached a tipping point. Amazing and encouraging.

Read more: http://blogs.forbes.com/csr/2011/05/31/bias-against-progress/

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Be Green Packaging Launches Nations First Sustainable Plant-Fiber Manufacturing Facility

(3BL Media / theCSRfeed) Santa Barbara, Calif. - May 26, 2011 - Be Green Packaging, LLC. announced today that it has finalized the purchase of the manufacturing plant where it will house the nations first compostable packaging facility based on the Green Products Innovation Institute’s standards. The rapidly growing company, which is located in Santa Barbara, CA, designs and manufactures Cradle to Cradle certified packaging from plant-based fibers and is currently supplying notable companies such as Whole Foods Market, 7-Eleven and P&G’s Gillette Razor Company, among others. Be Green's present domestic operations are limited to warehouses in Boston and Los Angeles, however, the company is seeking to augment its China manufacturing base with the new facility in Ridgeland, SC.

In order to accommodate its growing list of clients and expand the company's operations globally, Be Green will be opening a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Jasper county South Carolina. Gov. Nikki Haley recently lauded the company's decision to locate the facility in Ridgeland stating "What makes this great is that we [the state of South Carolina] said we weren’t going to just focus our economic development and job creation efforts on the cities but also the rural areas that need it the most. Be Green Packaging’s decision to invest more than $7.3 million and create 175 new jobs in our state is exciting news.

The company is currently the only manufacturer of sustainable food packaging to have achieved a Cradle to Cradle certification according to the Green Products Innovation Institute (GPII) protocols. Founded in 2010, the GPII is a non-profit organization whose aim is to transform our perception of what makes a product truly sustainable. The GPII Cradle to Cradle standard was developed to provide an objective level of certification for products that "…[mirror] the healthy, regenerative productivity of nature, and thereby [create] industry that is continuously improving and sustaining life and growth." (gpinnovation.org) According to the design firm MBDC (GPII's predecessor), "…unlike single-attribute eco-labels, [the Cradle to Cradle] certification program takes a comprehensive approach to evaluating the design of a product and the practices employed in manufacturing the product." Factors such as material health, material reutilization, renewable energy use, water stewardship, and social responsibility are considered when determining whether or not a product meets the organizations standards.

The new plant will combine a sophisticated water reclamation system with extensive composting and recycling operations to achieve its goal of becoming a 100% waste-free facility. CEO Ron Blitzer plans to extend the company’s triple bottom line philosophy to the new plant. "Our commitment to sustainability doesn't end with our products-- in addition to reducing our environmental footprint, we will be creating long-term jobs and growth in the area. We are committed to safety and quality in our plant and adding value to the communities in which we operate. With radical changes happening daily in our industry, now is the time to bring our manufacturing operations to the US." commented Blitzer.

Since opening its doors in 2007, Be Green has accumulated a long list of 3rd party environmental certifications by maintaining a strong commitment to its triple bottom line philosophy, which puts social and environmental stewardship on par with generating profit as a core policy of the enterprise. The company's packaging, which is manufactured from renewable, wild-harvested plants such as bulrush, bagasse, and bamboo, is certified compostable, recyclable, and tree-free. A non-GMO certification is pending although the company maintains that it does not use GM fibers in any of its products.

"Innovation is at the core of our enterprise" stated Robert Richman, Chairman and President of Manufacturing. "Because our packaging is manufactured from renewable, plant-based fibers, we are able to eschew petroleum and the significant problems associated with it, including rapidly increasing costs. We are excited to be at the forefront of the green revolution and are working around the clock to get things up and running at the Ridgeland facility."

Be Green Packaging LLC, based in Santa Barbara, Calif., manufactures and distributes Cradle to Cradle certified, tree-free, compostable packaging for the food and consumer packaging industries. The company’s products are made from annually renewable plant fibers that are safe for people and healthy for the planet. For more information about the company, please visit www.begreenpackaging.com.

Original article: http://3blmedia.com/theCSRfeed/Be-Green-Packaging-Launches-Nations-First-Sustainable-Plant-Fiber-Manufacturing-Facility-

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