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Cradle to Cradle Certification with MBDC

While philosophers, economists, scientists, and artists everywhere search for more sustainable ways to build and grow post the Industrial Revolution, McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC) continues to chart their path. William McDonough and Dr. Michael Braungart founded MBDC in 1995 to promote and shape what they call the “Next Industrial Revolution” through the introduction of a new design paradigm called Cradle to Cradle Design, and the implementation of eco-effective design principles. Now, MBDC has created a certification process by which the Cradle to Cradle (C2C) design protocol rates and certifies all types of various building products.

Cradle to Cradle Design is a fundamental conceptual shift away from the flawed system design of the Industrial Revolution. Instead of designing products and systems based on the take-make-waste model of the last century (‘cradle to grave’), MBDC’s Cradle to Cradle Design paradigm is powering the Next Industrial Revolution, in which products and services are designed based on patterns found in nature, eliminating the concept of waste entirely and creating an abundance that is healthy and sustaining. Eco-Effectiveness is MBDC’s design strategy for realizing these results by optimizing materials to be food either for nature’s ecosystems or for humans’ industrial systemsâ€”perpetually circulating in closed systems that create value and are inherently healthy and safe.

Additionally interesting is the USGBC’s recognition of the program by awarding an Innovation in Design, or ID, credit point for any project using the Cradle to Cradle program for certified building products.

[via MBDC]

Six Years Ago Today

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it–always.” -Mahatma Gandhi

While loading the running car with the last of my things, checklist taunting my brain and airline tickets in my pocket, I returned to the house with the sound of the phone ringing. It was my dad, expressing concern about my flight leaving Laguardia Airport that day. Neither of us quite understood what he was happening, but he suggested that my mom and I turn on the TV. As we watched, shocked and confused by the North Tower of the World Trade Center burning, we heard scattered reports of a commercial airline crashing into the building. Soon thereafter, we witnessed, live and on television, the second plane crash into the South Tower. At this point, reporters and viewers alike seemed to be in complete confusion, not to mention the terribly frightened people on the streets of lower Manhattan. Over the course of the next several days, pieces of puzzles were put together and handed to the public, bit by bit. I was “stranded” in New York until that Friday, but was incredibly lucky to be with my parents at this time of national and personal turmoil.

Of course, this day will always conjure many intense and conflicting emotions. For me, disgust and anger continue to plague my psyche, pointed most directly at my own inability to work towards peace and resolution. Compassion and sadness, too, for the people that lost loved ones that day and all of us who continue to lose felllow human lives due to this senseless, greed driven war.

Cleaning house starts at home, and I am continuously astounded at my typically American ability to sit idly by as a spectator of the tragic real-life play that unfolds here and abroad. The play involving Shakesparean-like but real characters in the form of our country’s leader, his advisors, and the corporate and privately held interests that fund this war machine. To watch the second and third and continuing acts, which compound themselves into such abhorrent realities that they are nearly impossible to believe, without demanding a change of course is irresponsible, at best.

I search for the answers to these enormous, larger than life issues. A huge part of me envisions moving to a country that doesn’t wage war, like our more peaceful sister to the North named Canada. Or perhaps explore the new democracy in Chile, buy some farm land and old abondoned house that needs fixing, grow grapes, drink wine, and have conversations with other expats dreaming of necessary revolutions. But then, I would simply be changing seats at the same play, likely less able to create systemic change; or missing out on becoming at least a donor for next season’s lineup.

In working towards resolutions, even if only locally, each act, however minute, can lead towards cleansing our troubled souls. I am not sure how these steps can be taken, but I know that if I refuse to involve myself somehow in the solution, I am as guilty as the decision makers. I am as guilty as the loathsome, fearful individuals everywhere that stand, shouting, “Encore! Encore!”

Continuing to seek the truth and express my views from a place of love and compassion is a good start, I suppose. Conscientiously choosing to be a part of the greater good, in work and in play, is also necessary to add value and meaning to my tiny contributions. I wonder if millions of people coming together, taking to the streets, and demanding a different, more peaceful and economically just society would make a difference anymore. I guess there is but one way to find out.

Alaska Synopsis

After Vancouver unleashed her many delights upon David and me for three days and two nights, we boarded the Island Princess for a seven night cruise. The first two days took us along the inside passage, which was magical, mysterious, and wrought with unidentifiable flying objects.

First stop – Ketchikan, where I was incredibly excited to fly through the trees like a monkey. Although I was far less balletic than my primate brethren, I did, in fact, fly through the trees via a zipline hung as high as 135 feet. The views were outstanding, I got past my height fears pretty quickly, and want to do it again yesterday, today, and tomorrow. It was flippin’ awesome.

The next morning, we were delivered to Juneau to meet our Bike and Brew guides. Turns out our driver, Melissa, knows my friend, Tony Tengs, from Haines. Small world, especially in the Northern territories.

After 9 miles of cycling and great views of the Mendenhall Glacier and Tongass National Forest, we were invited to take a walk down to the Visitor Center, which was bustling with tour buses and tourists alike. About 500 yards before the entrance to the visitor center, a quaint little bridge with a small pathway was on our left, about ten feet ahead of us. David and I were strolling along, taking it all in, when I looked up to be met with a brown bear, not ten feet away. I stopped dead in my tracks, hit David on the arm, and slowly started backing away. It was incredible to have this majestic creature present herself, but I wanted to respect her space, on her terms, in her land. David stood still as I walked backwards, and momma bear went back down her path. Moments later, she emerged with her two cubs, crossed the street, and continued along the river.

Later in the day, we were fortunate enough to meet up with our friend Quinny, who offered us an astounding view from the cabin of his boat and a day in the life of a local Juneau-ian. About eight hours of side-splitting laughter and soaking in the rays of kindred kin, we were back to the big floating city, like the rest of the cruise people.

The following morning greeted us with the charming town of Skagway, where I had visited 16 years before for one day. David and I strolled the town, met some locals making fun of the ‘cruise boat people’ at the local coffee shop, and bought some gear at the local outfitter store. Soon, we would be catching a ferry over to Haines, an off the beaten path destination and site of the life-changing experience I had taken part in 16 years before. This was my first visit since, and it felt like being in my own version of A Christmas Carol, looking out the rear window of a past, seemingly not my own.

Tony met us at the dock, a new incarnation in Haines since my last visit, and quickly continued our local flavor tour. After lunch at the famous Bamboo Room with superb halibut and chips, we strolled over to the Haines bookstore, Babbling Book. There, I picked up local writer Heather Lende’s book, If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name, which chronicles life and death in small-town Haines. (A great book, BTW. My friend Tony makes a couple of appearances, and his family’s Bamboo Room and Pioneer Bar is in every chapter, it seems.)

Next, we visited the “sacred grounds”, as Tony called them, a.k.a. the site where I camped for two months in the summer of 1991. Although it was basically the same, many years have pebbled the path to include some neighbors and a reopened cannery just across the Chilkat inlet. As Tony drove on, we talked a bit about the last 16 years, and as much as Haines has remained the same, development poses a threat to the way of life there, too. It seems this reality is quite hard to escape.

After meeting some local artists and cruising around town, we headed to the old set of White Fang, the Disney movie that was shot in Haines, now home to many local businesses. While visiting the Haines Brewing Company, we met Paul Wheeler, the owner and brewmaster, and highly enjoyed all of his beers, especially the Spruce Tip Ale. Sadly, we needed to catch the five o’clock ferry out of Haines in time to meet up with our cruise mates, and I somberly watched as Tony’s truck drove away until I couldn’t see it anymore. I noticed that he’s not a man that looks back. I am not surprised.

Thursday night on the boat was such a stark contrast from what we had experienced with our friends over the last two days, but our dinner guests made me feel lucky to have been assigned to such a great group. Throughout the course of the cruise, we had the good fortune of meeting Jim and Ann from outside of Austin, as well as Ross and Urte, living now in Fairhope, Alabama. Breaking bread with them and hearing their stories was incredibly easy, nice, and calming somehow.

The next three days were full of cruising in and around Glacier Bay, College Fjord, and towards Whittier, Alaska, where we disembarked for a train to Denali. Denali deserves its own post, but suffice it to say that the pod of 15 or more Beluga Whales along the way, Caribou, Moose, Dall sheep, Eagles, and the outrageously, neverending and enormous Alaska Mountain Range is a humbling and incredible experience. This, the land and creatures communing in life’s tapestry, is my church. Returning to the daily reminder of consumption, greed, and business as usual is difficult, but this experience also inspires me to follow my bliss.

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