Cradle to Cradle® partnership

Cradle to Cradle® partnership to facilitate step change for creativity and innovation in Australasia


Wellington / Hamburg: 28 September 2018

EPEA and thinkstep Australasia have announced a strategic partnership to accelerate the uptake of regenerative design through Cradle to Cradle® principles in Australasia.

The Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency (EPEA) is the cradle of Cradle to Cradle®, a design and innovation concept based on the safe and potentially infinite use of materials in nutrient cycles.

thinkstep supports organisations to improve resource efficiency and reduce the environmental impacts of products and services using quantitative assessments.

By combining quantitative impact assessment using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and the Cradle to Cradle® design principles, EPEA and thinkstep support businesses to improve existing products and adopt new approaches to product innovation.

Moving from a ‘take, make, waste’ economy to a beneficial circular economy requires a paradigm shift from reducing negative impacts to creating a positive footprint.

The partnership between EPEA and thinkstep is a natural fit based on common ideals and a shared vision for creativity and innovation to be the catalysts for a step change.

“thinkstep are the ideal Cradle to Cradle® partner because they analyse the impact along the supply chain as well as the materials used in a product and can define it in a digital world using reliable data. This helps to understand the systems as nutrients.” says Prof Braungart, CEO of EPEA, internationally renowned author and co-founder of the Cradle to Cradle® methodology.

“Including the Cradle to Cradle® concept in our projects allows us to create positive change by influencing products and services at the design stage instead of just reducing negative impacts – or in the language of Cradle to Cradle® – to move from doing less bad to doing more good”, comments Barbara Nebel, CEO of thinkstep Australasia.

Jointly thinkstep and EPEA help to facilitate step change by offering Cradle to Cradle® and LCA training, a systematic methodology, certification of products, tracking of healthy materials and calculating material circularity indicators.

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