Technology
competitive advantage, creative levers,
profitability, and as a tool to increase
positive perception and market share.
Cradle-to-cradle cycles represent a
fundamental shift from damage-min-imization and damage-management
strategies to take environmental sensitivity to the next level. When a
product returns to industry at the
end of its useful life, its materials are
used to make equally valuable new
products. The raw materials used in
its manufacture do not need minimizing because they will not become
waste in a landfill. Industry can save
billions of dollars annually by recovering valuable materials from used
products.
GREEN PARTNERS
In October 2007, Amgen, Eli Lilly,
and EnviroCooler pioneered a global
cradle-to-cradle program for Enviro-
Future BioSpheres could
include components
previously in the
cradle-to-cradle cycle.
Cooler’s BioSphere platform, called
the EnviroCooler R-Value Program.
It provides an incentive for clients to
purchase and return BioSphere components in multiple locations across
the globe. Green Partners of the program also receive a discount on all
future BioSpheres, which could
include components previously in
the cradle-to-cradle cycle.
“EnviroCooler has always been
‘green,’ ” says Rod Derifield, EnviroCooler’s CEO. “We have always
designed environmentally-conscious
cradle-to-grave products that were
burned clean for energy at the end of
their life cycle. The natural progression
for us was to take it to the next level
and design cradle-to-cradle programs,
where our products or product components can be circulated in closed loops
Companies have begun to use the worldwide R-Value program, protecting resources while gaining pricing incentives by becoming Green Partners.
Image courtesy EnviroCooler.
