Benno Bultink
Window manager
+31 26 3688 833
benno.bultink@rws.nl
8 - Roads and Regional Development
Cradle to Cradle and Sustainable Design
Cradle to Cradle is a new approach to sustainable design that was introduced in the book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (2002) by William McDonough and Michael Braungart. Sustainable design was defined in 1987 by the Brundtland Commission (in the Brundtland Report) as the development that the current generation provides for itself without limiting the next generation. The goal of the Cradle to Cradle (C2C) vision goes beyond that, i.e. providing for ourselves and ensuring that next generations have more opportunities. Cradle to Cradle tries instead of being “less harmful”, to be more than that.
Making a project or product – such as a road - less harmful starts off with making the choice to use cleaner raw materials, ensuring that the product is more efficient in use, and optimising it for recycling. Despite the connotations that the term “recycling” brings with it, this can be seen as designing from “Cradle to Grave”. The central theme of the “Cradle to Cradle” philosophy, is that all material has a new life, after having been used in one product, it can be used in another product. The difference with conventional recycling is that there is no loss of quality and no residual products that have to be dumped. This cycle is what is meant with the motto: “Waste Equals Food”.
Waste Equals Food
A tree is a good metaphor to use to describe the ideal cycle. The goal of a tree is to ensure its own maintenance and to produce nutrients for its descendants. People have been doing this since the industrial revolution by forcing back the threats of nature, by depleting the earth and fauna for consumptive purposes and producing destructive by-products. Trees, on the other hand offer a habitat and food for insects and birds, they feed the soil and purify the air. To provide for ourselves, we need technical materials such as metal, thinners and other materials that inherently should not end up in a biological cycle. On the one hand because they damage the biological processes and on the other, because the biological material influences the quality of the technical material. For “waste equals food” to work, the biological and technical nutrients must be separated, and each must be recycled within its own cycle.
Downcycling and Upcycling
Downcycling is the term that is used for most examples of recycling. The project or product it loses its original worth. An example with respect to roads is a post with reflection that can be found along the roadside, perhaps made of either old PET-bottles or used tyres. The materials would have been dumped, but have received a second life. At first the idea sounds nice, but during the second life sulphur and other damaging materials seep into the ground. Because of the swift degradation of the poor quality material the UV light causes the post to become porous and dull. After a while the post has to be replaced and must yet be dumped. The end result is not that useful material is regained, but that poisonous materials are spread and high quality material is lost. Luckily there is a solution. A post made of high quality, renewable raw material does exist. It does not leak poison, it feeds the ground, after use it does not have to be reclaimed, it provides nutrients for the ground. This post is made of…. wood.
Towards Sustainable Roads
The example above just sketches just one situation. But the C2C philosophy can be extended to the whole process of planning and realisation of road infrastructure. Therefore we need a way of thinking that is called “backcasting”. This means that, based on a fully sustainable C2C end situation first we determine what is feasible and subsequently the needs are set regarding realisation phase and, further back, planning phase. For example, on this basis noise can be important in the planning phase of a road project and an input for the EIA. Efficient material use, lean design and finding the shortest connection can be important design criteria, which could be important input for location issues and CBA. In case of a tender for a tunnel construction in a road, market parties could be allowed to come up with plans for the reuse of building materials such as sand, gravel and marl. In this case one site will produce building materials for the other and cost savings can be realized.
C2C and Cost-effectiveness can go hand in hand
From the last example it already appears that using the C2C principles does not have to imply that the costs for investment and maintenance will rise. Actually, application of C2C can lead to cost-effective solutions. Saving energy and raw materials may actually lead to the saving of hard cash, especially in times when resources get more and more scarce. In turn, in order to underpin sensible decisions a sound financial and economic analysis should be inextricably bound up with applying C2C principles.
Link with the 6th Conference on Roads and Regional Development
The above example shows that implementing C2C principles do not have to be complicated. It does, however, require a different way of thinking during the design process. The theme of the 6th Conference on Roads and Regional Development is “Opportunities for Sustainable Road Infrastructure”. It is precisely these opportunities that we would like to exchange knowledge on during the conference. By studying how to implement the C2C principles in road infrastructure together, we can contribute to a more sustainable world.
The following document was distributed amongst the participants to assist them when developing their presentation.
