Cradle-to-cradle is usually associated with the design principle and methodology created in 2001 by professor Michael Braungart and William McDonough. Its\u2019s abbreviation C2C. This design approach is accompanied by a sustainability label for products that are C2C designed and certified<\/a>. However, cradle-to-cradle is also applied in the scientific method Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Which is what we discuss in this blog.<\/p>\n In this article you learn how cradle-to-cradle:<\/p>\n Cradle-to-cradle is one of the several \u201clifecycle models\u201d that guide the scope and methodology of Life Cycle Assessments. <\/span>Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)<\/a> <\/span>is THE scientific method to measure all environmental impacts of a product.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n To dive into the cradle-to-cradle model, we first need to understand the lifecycle of a product. Just like people, products go through several \u201clifecycle stages\u201d:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Based on the stages you\u2019re interested in or have data available on, you can choose to leave in or take out phases when you measure the footprint of a product. Basically, you decide: how much of my product\u2019s lifecycle do I want to measure the impact of? <\/span><\/p>\n There are 3 main product lifecycle models you can implement in LCA:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Cradle-to-grave is the standard lifecycle model in our current \u201clinear\u201d (as opposed to circular) economy. We make, use, and discard. <\/span>However, in the cradle-to-cradle model, we make, use, and reuse.<\/span><\/p>\n By using waste products as input for new products, ideally, the Waste Disposal stage in a product\u2019s lifecycle is eliminated. Thus, the <\/span>Waste Disposal turns into Raw Material Extraction<\/b>. Waste becomes new resources!<\/span><\/p>\n In practice, turning <\/span>Waste Disposal into\u00a0 Raw Material Extraction<\/b> can be categorized into two levels: <\/span>reusing (incl. upcycling) and recycling<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Many products reach the end of their life because one or two components\/materials fail. The other components are still good-as-new. Instead of discarding them, put them to good use:\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n To make this possible, <\/span>design your products in a <\/b>modular way<\/span><\/b><\/a>,<\/b> with the goal of easy component reuse in mind.<\/span><\/p>\n You can also reuse the whole product according to these two ways:<\/span><\/p>\n A role model in refurbishing is Ecochain customer <\/span>Flex IT<\/span><\/a>. They refurbish laptops in an official partnership with HP, ensuring quality through shared production facilities. Through this partnership, they created the first circular IT product line, called: <\/span>HP Approved Selection<\/span><\/a>. Furthermore, by leasing and <\/span>renting<\/span><\/a> their products instead of selling them, the responsibility for keeping the products in the economic loop remains with them. It\u2019s a business model in the spirit of the circular economy. <\/span><\/p>\n Recycling means transforming components back into their raw material, to be used again. In case you cannot reuse or repair components, you can recycle the materials. Sometimes 100% of the material can be recovered without quality losses, think of <\/span>steel<\/span><\/a><\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Unfortunately, many materials lose quality when recycled. This is called downcycling, and isn\u2019t what we want in a circular economy \u2013 it gradually kicks the materials out of the economic loop. Therefore, <\/span>aim to choose to reuse over recycling <\/b>where you can!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n TIPS <\/b>\u2013 When designing components for recyclability:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When you design products for cradle-to-cradle, LCA <\/span>proves<\/b> the resulting impact reductions in your product\u2019s footprint.\u00a0<\/span>But how does cradle-to-cradle <\/span>exactly<\/b> change your LCA results?<\/span><\/p>\n Using <\/span>reused and recycled materials can reduce the impact <\/b>of your product. There are two common methods to calculate this in an LCA:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Recycled materials<\/strong> have <\/span>little raw material impact contribution<\/b>\u2013 they didn\u2019t have to be produced from virgin materials after all. However, there are of course accompanying recycling processes that do have an impact.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Reused (and Upcycled) materials<\/strong> have <\/span>zero impact contribution<\/b>, as they are reused in their current state \u2013 and not broken down like in recycling. Big benefits for your LCA results! However, also in upcycling, you do have an environmental impact associated with the upcycling processes (using the materials in creating a \u2018new\u2019 product).<\/span><\/p>\n However, recycling and end-of-second-life waste-treatment processes (when the recycled or upcycled material is wasted after its second life) can have significant impacts that <\/span>do<\/b> count toward your \u2018secondary\u2019 product.<\/span><\/p>\n This is called the \u201ccut-off method\u201d. A special version of it is defined in EN15804, which is the basis for <\/span>environmental product declarations<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Recycled materials have a <\/span>fraction<\/b> of the material\u2019s lifecycle impacts. The size of the impact fraction depends on how many times the material is recycled: if that\u2019s 2, the fraction is \u00bd, if it\u2019s three, the fraction is \u2153, and so forth.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n
What is cradle-to-cradle?\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n
Lifecycle models in LCA<\/span><\/h3>\n
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![\"Lifecycle](\"https:\/\/ecochain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Lifecycle-Models_LCA_Ecochain-300x240-1.png\")
![\"Circular](\"https:\/\/ecochain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/CircularEconomy-Vertical-Horizontal-1024x635-1.png\")
Cradle-to-cradle in product design<\/span><\/h2>\n
Reusing on a component or product level<\/span><\/h3>\n
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![\"HP](\"https:\/\/ecochain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/hp_circular-line.png\")
Recycling at the resource level<\/span><\/h3>\n
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Cradle-to-cradle benefits in LCA<\/span><\/h2>\n
1. Fewer impacts from reused & recycled components\/materials<\/span><\/h3>\n
Cut-off method<\/strong><\/h4>\n
50:50 approach<\/strong><\/h4>\n