Products Made of

A decade since McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry was founded, cradle-to-cradle thinking slowly permeates within and across industries
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From Architectural Record
Nancy B. Solomon, AIA

The analysis and reformulation process can be time-intensive, even for a biological nutrient such as the 100 percent pure wool fabrics produced by Pendleton Woolen Mills of Portland, Oregon. John Allard of Textile Solutions, the design and sales company for the contract and residential furniture divisions of Pendleton, estimates that it took about four years from the time the mill embarked on an effort to create a compostable and environmentally optimized fabric for Herman Miller's vertical panels to the time the furniture-systems company actually introduced the product.

"First of all," explains Allard, "we had to make sure that the wool came from growers that follow best practices." These range from grazing the sheep on unfertilized grass to not spraying harsh chemicals on their coats. MBDC then had to evaluate the oils used for carding and spinning the wool, the dyes used to color the woven cloth, and the surfactants that are applied to finish the fabric.

Allard notes that various items throughout the manufacturing process had to be altered in order for this product to meet MBDC's requirements. For example, they had to convert from their standard dyes to ones that had already been formulated by the chemical company Ciba-Geigy and screened by MBDC. Unlike 10 years ago, notes Allard, there are now enough approved dyes that fabric companies aren't too restricted in their color options.

Steelcase's Think chair received a silver rating from MBDC. A life-cycle analysis of all the constituent parts provided information on how they affect both human and environmental health. The chair is made from up to 44 percent recycled materials, and it can be disassembled for recycling in about five minutes using common hand tools (left).
Images: Courtesy Steelcase

Nonetheless, Allard estimates that Pendleton worked with Ciba-Geigy over a period of two years to duplicate the actual colors that Herman Miller had already been using for several of its existing vertical panel systems. "To switch their color line into one that passed MBDC was very difficult and time-consuming."

Working from this earlier experience, Pendleton subsequently spent another year developing a 100 percent felted wool seating fabric, which had to be constructed differently from the vertical fabric in order to meet more stringent abrasion requirements. The company took advantage of all the research done during the development of the eco-friendly vertical fabric to select acceptable oils, dyes, and surfactants for this new seating fabric, which was just certified by MBDC as a biological nutrient.

Construction for deconstruction

MBDC may also suggest alternative ingredients or assembly techniques so that product components have a better chance of staying on a biological or technical track after the particular assembly has reached the end of its useful life. Haworth, the furniture-systems manufacturer in Holland, Michigan, took this approach to heart when designing its new Zody chair, which earned a gold rating from MBDC. "We needed to develop an end-of-life plan," says Paul Olesh, Haworth's seating and storage product director. The chair was designed so that it could be easily disassembled, returned to Haworth (for a small take-back fee), and refurbished for another lifetime of use.

According to Mark Bonnema, Haworth's senior design for environment engineer, the goal of creating a product that the manufacturer can take back drives many aspects of design development. In creating the Zody chair, for example, the design team tried to use the same materials in as many places as possible, even though this adds an extra constraint to the design process. He estimates that there are at least 15 parts made from one particular type of nylon so that, when the chair comes back, all those parts go into the same recycling bin. "It wouldn't be worth the effort to reclaim if those three pounds of parts were made of six different materials," explains Bonnema.

 

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Originally published in Architectural Record.
Originally published in December 2005

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