William McDonough + Partners (WM+P) is pleased to support and celebrate Amazon in their announcement of a ‘Climate Pledge Friendly’ badge on their website. Featuring the Cradle to Cradle Certified™ Product Standard, the badge communicates to customers that their purchases are in keeping with Amazon’s commitment to reaching the Paris Agreement goal ten years early and to be net-zero carbon by 2040.
As WM+P Founding Partner William McDonough describes, “Cradle to Cradle certification provides a framework for product optimization based on the principles of designing with safe and healthy materials, using clean renewable energy and water, celebrating diversity, and eliminating the concept of waste.” McDonough, who co-founded the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute and pioneered the concepts of Cradle to Cradle and the Circular Economy, applauded Amazon’s announcement. “We love that Amazon is making it simple for customers to find sustainable products. Amazon’s new program will expand the Cradle to Cradle Certified™ program’s reach and enable us to empower more brands to deliver safer and more sustainable products for the circular economy.”
Amazon joins organizations such as USGBC in recognizing Cradle to Cradle Certified™ for its multi-attribute framework. Cradle to Cradle is one of the top material health certifications within LEED and the first to earn two points within the program. For years, Cradle to Cradle Certified products earned special innovation points for meeting the robust criteria.
WM+P, grounded in the principles of Cradle to Cradle Design™, has been at the forefront of integrating Cradle to Cradle Certified™ products in architectural projects. As the world’s first Circular Economy development, the firm’s Park 20|20 projects comprising nine innovative buildings located in the Netherlands, for example, contain the largest concentration of Cradle to Cradle Certified products in the world. WM+P’s design for Universidad EAN, currently under construction in Bogotá, Colombia, will be occupied by students studying Cradle to Cradle and Circular Economy principles.
WM+P has also designed buildings for several manufacturers of certified products, including Method Home, whose Southside Soapbox manufacturing facility produces certified products while generating clean, renewable energy on-site. Similarly, WM+P’s design collaboration with Herman Miller on their GreenHouse Factory and Offices ultimately led to their partnership with McDonough and MBDC, the creators of the Cradle to Cradle Certified Products Program, in the development and design of several of the first Cradle to Cradle Certified furniture products. Many such products were used to furnish YouTube’s headquarters, which WM+P designed to be beneficial for occupant health and wellbeing down to the molecule.
Interested in learning more about how Cradle to Cradle Design and Cradle to Cradle Certified products can be beneficial for your architectural design project? Contact us.
