Cradle to Cradle approach for businesses in North West Europe

A €9.4 million project to explore how Cradle to Cradle® (C2C) principles can be applied to business innovation sites in North West Europe has been approved.

C2C principles aim to design and create production techniques that are not just efficient but as waste free as possible, converting any remaining waste from the production process into raw materials or energy.

In the UK, the Institute will focus on industrial symbiosis, in which the waste or by-product of one organisation becomes the raw materials for another. This will include an ‘energy from waste’ demonstrator on the Sustainable Industries Park (SIP) in Dagenham Dock and industrial symbiosis research around the Olympic Park in Stratford and the wider Thames Gateway. 

The INTERREG IVB funded project will work with ten partners in North West Europe, including lead partner, Samenwerkingsverband Regio Eindhoven (SRE), a regional authority in Eindhoven in the Netherlands.

Ed Metcalfe, Director of Research and Business Development at the Institute said: “Using a demonstration area, we will work to establish how by-products from energy from waste systems can be re-used in production processes. The involvement of the Olympic Park and its wider vicinity could provide an opportunity to undertake a fully peer-reviewed assessment of C2C principles from the planning, construction and legacy phases of the London 2012 Games.”

The Institute will work with the project partners to shape the project, bringing together business, public sector agencies and academic organisations to share knowledge and best practise in this emerging arena. The research and learning gathered will then inform how C2C values could be more widely adopted in the North West Europe region.

The four year project is due to start this month.