Bridgett Luther and Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute: Turning Negative to Positive
 |
| Bridgett Luther |
Bridgett Luther, a member of the California Sustainability Alliance’s Steering Committee, has an impressive history of involvement in environmental protection and efforts to protect natural resources for future generations. Throughout her work in this area, Ms. Luther has serves as a problem solver. Her efforts have included:
- Founding the Carolinas office of the Trust for Public Land
- Serving as National Director of Development of the Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP America)
- Serving as Director of the California Department of Conservation
- Working with the California Sustainability Alliance on the Department of Conservation's Emerald California pilot program
Her dedication and efforts continue in her current role as President of a non-profit organization created to bring about a largescale transformation in the way we make the things we make. The Institute prescribes a set of design principles, based on the laws of nature, to help businesses create products that are safe for people and the environment, and will be the global reference standard for Cradle to Cradle (C2C) product certification.
Ms. Luther recently sat down with the Alliance to discuss her experiences and thoughts on sustainability and the paradigm shift she feels is needed – and that Cradle to Cradle is dedicated to making happen. The following are her comments on:
- C2C Philosophy-Turning Negatives to Positives
The Cradle to Cradle philosophy is about how you get from doing “less bad” to “doing good” by creating positive impact. Rather than just reducing a business’ carbon footprint and product’s toxins, you run a business on 100 percent renewable energy or make a product that benefits the planet. For Luther, this kind of approach is a much-needed game changer for the environmental movement which tends to emphasize the negative and doing with less.
The Cradle to Cradle world is based on the premise that if everything we did and made had beneficial impacts, the more we did and made, the more benefits we’d enjoy. What would happen if what you produce actually cleans water? – as was the case with a Swiss manufacturer discussed in Cradle To Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, the book by Bill McDonough and Michael Braungart and the basis for the Institute.
- C2C & Sustainability Health Benefits
Cradle to Cradle also emphasizes the significant health benefits to sustainability and the associated reduction of environmental toxins. Cradle to Cradle (or C2C) certification is about creating products that are both healthier and better – making things that allow us to live in a way we want to without poisoning the planet.
- C2C Certification & Sustainable Consumption: The Paradigm Shift
The Cradle to Cradle Institute is focused on C2C product certification, a five-criteria protocol that evaluates how safe and healthy a product is for humans and the environment. The certification process, makes companies take a hard look at the way their products are designed, and ask themselves some hard questions: “Is our product designed so it can either be recycled or composted at the end of its useful life?” “If it’s going to be composted, is everything in it is safe and healthy for soil, air, and water?” “If it is going to be recycled, is it designed in a way that all the material could be retrieved and reused in a way that gets up-cycled as opposed to down-cycled?” “Do we have an infrastructure suitable for the end of product life?”
Cradle to Cradle is based on a belief that materials can – and should - cycle endlessly. It’s all about the seeming oxymoron of “sustainable consumption.” It’s a paradigm shift that Luther feels is right in front of us - and Cradle to Cradle is leading the way to it.
- The C2C "Ah-Ha Moment"
When Luther found herself in Sacramento as Director of the California Department of Conservation, the view from her office window was of the EPA building and she was surrounded by policies being made. Here she remembered the speech she had heard Bill McDonough give prior to her move to California - and realized “we’re just not doing it right. We are sitting at the end of the pipeline all day long trying to tell people how much poison they can have in their air or their water or their bodies until it will kill them. What we ought to be doing is sending messages to the market about making things that won't kill us.”
- C2C and Green Chemistry
This realization aligned with the impetus behind Governor Schwarzenegger’s Green Chemistry Initiative, which is based on the Cradle To Cradle book. Rather than ”squeezing the life out of ourselves,” we should recognize that “we are in the most innovative society on the planet here in the United States, and all we have to do is start sending market signals to reinvent things.” This is where the technology and green chemistry that California is known for can come into play, whether it’s used for producing building materials or children's toys or safe carpets for hospitals.
This is why Luther loves the green building space, as she thinks that this industry, more than others, has embraced these ideas – and found mechanisms to measure, reward and encourage positive sustainability innovations and efforts.
- Going Green & Growing Green - Bottom-line Impacts of C2C Certification
Luther feels that businesses have embraced sustainability and “going green” recently because they have found it has incredible impact both on their bottom line and with consumers. The Cradle to Cradle site presents numerous examples of the very definite financial benefit to businesses, including a video clip about a company that continued to grow during the recent market downturn because it started with C2C certification to the health benefits of its product – which has also become the basis for the company’s marketing campaign.
The building industry is seeing a sharp decrease in the number of leased buildings – with the exception of those that are “green leases.” The buildings that have LEED Silver and Gold certification continue to be leased while other buildings are lagging. Companies that made the investment in so-called “green programs” are seeing the positive impact of their investments now and are participating in a wave of interest in knowing “what's in my product, how good is it for me, how healthy is my building, how energy efficient is my home?”
- The Alliance & C2C Principals
According to Luther, the Alliance can help move things forward in the green building arena by placing greater emphasis on the materials being used. “Instead of low VOC, how about no VOC? How about carpets that don’t have a PVC backing? There are over 100 companies that have gotten their products C2C certified and 80 percent of them are in the building space. They have taken the leap to try to get toxicity out of their materials. They have made a commitment to making their products with renewable energy and paying everybody fair wage and using clean water. I would like to see more of that reflected in some of the great green leasing activities that are happening at the Alliance.”
In a somewhat different vein, Luther is also very proud of the Department of Conservation’s Emerald California pilot program that she worked on with the Alliance, which is the program’s lead implementer. The program is designed to help local governments adopt “reach goals” that go beyond simply complying with State environmental mandates and implement sustainability programs that support California’s environmental priorities. She is so impressed with the initiative that Luther would like to see the Strategic Growth Council adopt the Emerald California’s “guiding principle” as one of its own - tak
