Producing eco-friendly products and services means more than simply using recycled materials you need to look at the entire life cycle.

By: Linda Formichelli

Recycling your scrap paper used to be all you needed to call your business “green.” But in today’s environment, green comes in many shades, with the richest and most all-inclusive being “cradle-to-cradle” design.

While the term “cradle-to-grave” covers the life cycle of a product from production to landfill, “cradle-to-cradle” describes products that exist in closed, environmentally friendly loops: They start out healthful for the environment that’s the first “cradle” and can be recycled, composted or reclaimed for a new life, hence, the second “cradle.”

The product- and process-design firm McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC) offers cradle-to-cradle certification for products ranging from furniture to envelopes.

Showing off your recycling bin in the front office won’t be nearly enough to gain this certification, which is offered at Platinum, Gold and Silver levels. Instead, a company must use environmentally safe and healthy materials, design its product for reutilization (such as recycling or composting) and keep water pure and used efficiently. The company also must make efficient use of renewable energy and promote social responsibility.

“The social responsibility’ element addresses business activities and employee treatment, and can include community connections as well,” says Steve Bolton, a senior consultant and manager of business development for MBDC. Bolton says they’re most interested in activities beyond simple employee health and safety, moving into quality-of-life issues on the positive side that is, they don’t just meet minimum regulations, but also improve worker happiness.

“We’ll go through the company’s supply chain to understand every ingredient in its finished product down to a detailed level,” says Bolton. “It’s a very intense process, but it helps us understand what we’re dealing with and what can be done to improve it.”

Companies that have received cradle-to-cradle certification for their products include eco-friendly flooring company Shaw Industries and the United States Postal Service,® which recently received Silver certification from MBDC for its Priority Mail® and Express Mail® corrugated boxes, paperboard envelopes, Tyvek envelopes, mailing labels and mailing tape. In granting the certification, MBDC not only scrutinized the internal processes of the USPS,® but also contacted and examined their more than 200 suppliers.

So why the interest in cradle-to-cradle design? Well, it’s not just good for the environment, practitioners claim, but also for business. “The certification was important because our clients are looking for third-party authentication,” says Jeff West, director of environmental affairs for the commercial division of Shaw, which received certification for its Eco Solutions Q nylon fiber and its EcoWorx tile and broadloom backing system. The certification took six months, shorter than usual because Shaw had already obtained the MBDC Design Protocol, an earlier certification.

Cradle-to-cradle certification, and any green initiative that a company takes, can also be used as an important part of the business’s marketing strategy. For example, Shaw notes its certification on the sample books it shows to customers, in product specs and in customer presentations. It’s too early to tell how the certification is affecting Shaw’s bottom line (Shaw received it in June 2007), as the details were only recently included in its marketing pieces; however, “early results seem to indicate that it’s generating questions and positive comments from our clients,” says West.

To green up your products and boost your marketing talk to your suppliers about how they can help make your products more environmentally friendly. “You need to leverage people to make change,” says Bolton. Learning about the eco-friendliness of your processes and products will help you make smart, green decisions. Says Bolton, “You’re ahead of 99 percent of the manufacturing population if you’ve fully characterized your ingredients and can work to improve them over time.”