OVERVIEW
Central to Cradle to Cradle® as a design framework is to eliminate the concept of waste — recognizing that all materials are valuable and finite and when designed appropriately can be used in infinite cycles. Effectively implementing this design principle can have a significant impact on the environment and the economy.

The goal of this design challenge is to eliminate the concept of “waste” by designing products with materials that may be perpetually cycled to retain their value as nutrients to fuel growing global economies.

The challenge is sponsored by the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute in partnership with Autodesk and is directly tied to the launch of a new online education program for product designers made possible by the Alcoa Foundation. The free, selfpaced, on-line course provides strategies, tools, and examples of the Cradle to Cradle design principles leading to Cradle to Cradle Certified products.

Entries may be submitted starting immediately, and must be received no later than March 15, 2015. Winners will be announced in April 2015. All contest details can be found at c2ccertified.org/challenge.

Eligibility: This contest is open to design students and design professionals who have completed the on-line Cradle to Cradle Product Design program.

Format: All submissions must be in English. All written material should be packaged as a single PDF document not to exceed five pages.

Submission: Upload the complete pdf file using the form on the Design Challenge website at c2ccertified.org/challenge

Deadline: Submission deadline is March 15, 2015 at 11:59 pm in the pacific time zone.

On Giving Tuesday, people from around the country donated to help Native American families on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana. We were so touched by the inspiring messages of hope for Fort Peck included with their gifts. To add your own message of support, please click here.

You are not forgotten; help is on the way.

- Alexandra

No other people have been as mistreated in our country as have the many nations that make up Native Americans.

 

Please know that there are many people out here that recognize this and want to help in their own way — whatever that might be. We still have a long way to go…

- Randall

Many blessings to you and your family!

- Lauren

You have our support during this season of giving to provide homes, education and opportunity to the people of Fort Peck.

 

We are all brothers and sisters, and we are committed to helping give all people a chance at a healthy, happy, prosperous life.

- Robin and Wendy

I believe in “love thy neighbor.” I also believe in “Make It Right in Montana.” Between the two, I trust that you all will get the homes you so deserve!

- Linda

I apologize for what our forefathers have done; for me it is the biggest shame and travesty of this country. I believe the Native American Way can heal this planet, our Mother Earth.

 

I donate today in honor of your ancestry and in honor of future generations that we all may grow from our past.

- Brice

I can’t erase 500+ years of colonialism and genocide, but I can do this. I hope it helps, even a little.

- Sean

May God watch over your families and guide you to long and fruitful lives. Every family deserves a new beginning and a home to start those fruitful lives and memories.

- Bo and Kathy

 Your tribe deserves so much better and I hope my gift helps!

- Jessica

I wish the Fort Peck tribes a bright future and many, many happy new homes in 2015. You deserve nothing less.

- Susannah

Please accept this gift from my family to yours.

- Patricia

In honor of my mother and father…Wishing you a good season, and hope one day soon our paths will cross!

- Christina

 Photo credit: Love Has No Color, Fort Peck Indian Reservation

Our first entry comes from Bob D. of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Bob and his friends spend at least one night of every week in a local park passing out clothes and other items to homeless men, women and families – and getting to know them personally.

Here are Bob’s tips on how to help this holiday season:

1. Share your cell phone. Give someone the opportunity to call their son or daughter at the holidays.
2. Pass out a few pairs of new socks.
3. Bring a clean blanket (doesn’t have to be new).
4. Sit down and hear someone’s story. Even if they’re crazy. Especially if they’re crazy.
5. Buy a few bus passes. It’s the closest thing you can do to giving someone on the streets a new car.
6. Hug a stranger. It might be the only one they get for a while.
7. Bring a football to throw around. Hardly anything breaks down walls like a football.
8. Bring your dog. Everyone loves dogs.
9. Smile and make tons of eye contact.
10. Ask for prayer. It is an easy way to make someone feel valued and important. Sometimes its better to ask for prayer for yourself than the other way around.

Bob D. (center) and his friends giving back in Fort Lauderdale.

• Take a picture of the transportation method you used to get to @Greenbuild today.
• Take a picture from inside of the Greenbuild LivingHome kitchen featuring @ECObyCosentino countertops.

• We kicked off Make It Right with a huge art installation the Lower 9th Ward. You can see repurposed materials from the installation in our @Greenbuild Expo booth #1255. Find the material we’re talking about and take a picture of it.  Here’s a hint:
  

• We use no-VOC paint from @Benjamin_Moore  on all our homes. Take a picture in their booth.

• Only one home in Louisiana was designed by this famous architect who also designed the Disney Concert Hall in LA. Take a picture in front of this home. PS: It’s also LEED Platinum certified.

• We love recycling! Take a picture of @ShawFloors Cradle to Cradle certified carpet that is used in all our homes.
• This green mode of transportation in #NOLA just received National Historic Landmark Status. Be green and take a photo riding it.

Happy snapping – we hope you win!

Kim Roberts, Development Director

Bar / Music:

• Check out the Maple Leaf on Tuesday nights to hear Rebirth Brass Band!

Restaurants:

• Head over to Willie Mae’s Scotch House for the best fried chicken in New Orleans.
• Stop by Borgne – Brian Landry’s Oyster Spaghetti is amazing.
• For a delicious breakfast, bagels with smoked salmon at Stein’s Deli.

Craig Turner, Construction Director (also Scottish)

Bars:

• Finn McCools, Banks St, Mid-City. Sports bar, great food, smoke free, cheap booze, pub quiz and other games nights, great craic.

Restaurants:

• Treo, Tulane Ave. Great, affordable food & drink, art gallery.

Shopping:

[Editor’s Note: Craig would like it stated for the record that he doesn’t do shopping.]

Parks:

• Audubon Park, Old oaks, beautiful scenery, golf course.
• Palmer Park, corner of Claiborne & Carrollton, uptown. Art market last Saturday of the month with local artwork for sale.

Music:

• DBA & Tipitinas – both great local and international musicians. John Boutte is a legend.

Other:

Visit Chalmette Battlefield, site of the Battle of New Orleans, where thousands of Scottish highlanders were killed due to the inadequacies and bad leadership of the English General Edward Pakenham. I believe that Major General Andrew Jackson was quoted as saying how bravely they fought despite being badly led to a massacre.

James Mazzuto, Solar Director

Bars:

• The Carousel Bar – The bar is an antique carousel that turns. Nice drinks.
• Napoleon House – Famous for their Pimms Cup. Built for Napoleon when he was banished but he never made it.

Shopping:

• Southern Candymakers- They make a variety of special pralines including sweet potato and coconut.

Personal Grooming:

• Aidan Gill – Place for a hot shave and a scotch. Carry cufflinks, elegant ties, old school shaving accessories.

Jordan Pollard, Design Manager

Bar:

• Vaughn’s – This is a classic New Orleans dive bar in the Bywater. It is dark on the inside, you have to use a buzzer to get in, and they clearly have not renovated since the 1800’s. They have great shows throughout the week, and it is small and intimate. You never know who you will run into at Vaughn’s!

Restaurant:

• Adolfo’s – Adolfo’s on Frenchman is the perfect restaurant that is in the Marigny, near the French Quarter, but not over-run by tourists. They have a pretty simple menu: Fish or Steak. The beauty of this is there are several amazing Creole-Italian inspired sauces to go over each. Sauce on steak? You are damn right they put a sauce on steak. I suggest the Ocean Sauce. Bring cash and expect to grab a drink at the Apple Bar below before you get a table – because Adolfo’s doesn’t do reservations.

Shopping:

• Frenchman Art Market – This little open air market on Frenchman is a perfect place to walk off your dinner at Adolfo’s. It has a variety of handmade goods and art from artists and artisans living in New Orleans. This is also a place to catch glimpses of actors and actresses that are also checking the market out while taking a break from shooting movies. Just don’t take photos of the celebrities or harass them. In fact, don’t even really look at them. That is the quickest way to look like a tourist and the quickest way to make the locals angry.

What did we miss? Tell us in the comments below!

Last weekend, while some of Make It Right’s team were planting trees in Kansas City, our construction director Craig Turner travelled to Far Rockaway, New York to join St. Bernard Project, American Institute of Architects, Chelsea Clinton and our partners in the Designing Recovery Competition to break ground on the first Resilient House for Hurricane Sandy victims.

The new home is being built for Felix and Linita Lyons and their four young children. Felix Lyons said that when the home is finished “we’ll be happy again, and our family will regain a little peace.”

We’re thrilled to be a part of helping Sandy victims rebuild. Check out the design for Resilient House, as well as homes designed for disaster victims in New Orleans and Joplin, Missouri.

Last weekend we had an incredible day with our Kansas City team and more than 80 volunteers who came out to help us plant trees, grasses, lay sod and put the finishing touches on Bancroft School Apartments. We really enjoyed meeting new friends in Kansas City and showing them the beautiful restoration work in this historic school. We are so proud of this project – expect to hear a lot more about it in the next few weeks!

Here’s a slide show of our Kansas City Volunteer Day!

The past month has been a whirlwind for Cosentino, which you may know as the makers of ECO, the leading line of recycled surfacing that’s used in nearly all of the Make It Right homes in New Orleans.  The excitement is due to the official US launch of Dekton, the new ultra-compact surface, that’s designed to cover nearly every surface of the home, office or commercial building.

Dekton is the most significant product launch for Cosentino since the development of Silestone natural quartz more than a decade ago.  Cosentino has invested nearly $172 million into Dekton, including 22,000 hours of research and development and the construction of a new state-of-the-art factory at our manufacturing headquarters in Spain.  The result is a surface consisting of a mixture of glass, porcelain and quartz with superior technical characteristics that can be used both indoors and out.

We were thrilled to introduce Dekton to architects and designers this month, and we were fortunate to partner with the Center for Architecture in New York City to showcase Dekton in a month-long exhibition that featured six emerging firms, all who showcased the innovation and technology behind Dekton through truly creative models.  Additionally, renowned architect Daniel Libeskind presented his own model of Dekton — an exact replica of a project he plans to build at the Cosentino headquarters in Spain next month.

To kickoff the exhibition, which was held during Archtober, a month-long celebration of architecture and design in New York City, Cosentino joined Libeskind and the six emerging firms for a memorable celebration. We’ve shared some photos below to give you an insider look!

- Lorenzo Marquez, Cosentino North America

For more about Dekton visit their website and Facebook page. 

Whether manufacturers were already in production or needed a boost to bring their ideas to the market, we wanted to encourage companies designing building products to improve human and environmental health.

144 applicants were screened by Cradle to Cradle certification experts, toxicologists from ToxServices, and building professionals from Make It Right. Judges selected 10 finalists who are now being considered for the $250,000 cash prize. Meet the finalists below!

Mushroom® Insulation

Ecovative
Mushroom® Insulation is a renewable, high-performance, and cost-effective replacement for plastic foams. Ecovative’s process combines agricultural byproducts with fungal mycelium, a natural, self-assembling binder, to literally grow structural rigid insulation. We grew a tiny house, and we see this as a proving ground for the $21B rigid board foam insulation market. Read more…

Softbatts Sheep’s Wool Insulation

Bellwether Materials
Softbatts insulation is made from sheep’s wool. It is safe for people, animals, and the environment. Very little energy is used in manufacturing. Installers don’t need to suit up. Wool is known for its ability to absorb pollutants in the air, making interior spaces healthier. If the building catches on fire, wool insulation is difficult to burn and will delay the ignition of surrounding materials. If the building is demolished, the wool can easily be pulled out and reused, repurposed or recycled. Read more…

GR Green Roofing and Siding

GR Green Building Products Inc
GR Green Building Products Inc (GR Green) has developed a breakthrough, patented process to produce the world’s first truly ecological synthetic roofing and siding products at extremely competitive prices. Made from waste limestone and recycled plastic—milk bottles and grocery bags—GR Green CedarTM and GR Green SlateTM look natural, cost less than the competition and can be completely recycled at the end of their 50+ years of use, making GR’s products not only ecological but sustainable. Read more…

StormWall

StormWall Industries
StormWall is a structural wall, floor, and ceiling system with panels that supersede and replace the use of drywall. Based on the Composite Panel Associates Carbon Model, StormWall panels sequester more than 3X the CO2 emitted from the production process and supply chain. The StormWall panel is Classified E1 for indoor air quality with Formaldehyde content confirmed at <8.0mg/100g. Panels are painted in factory with VOC-free, GREENGUARD certified paint, further reducing formaldehyde emissions by 80-95%. Read more…

bioMASON biobrick

bioMASON
Traditional brick manufacturing utilizes a fuel firing process and is responsible for approximately 800m tons of CO2 emissions every year. bioMASON’s protected technology instead employs bacteria to produce a natural cement within a mix of aggregate. Inputs are globally abundant and may be extracted from waste streams. The cementation process is achieved in ambient temperatures. A hardened brick requires less than 5 days to form, and is comparable in cost and performance to traditional masonry.Read more…

Reinforced Wood Wool Cement Board

Dutch Design Initiative
Reinforced Wood Wool Cement Board is a versatile building material made from wood wool and cement. The wooden pole in the board results in a constructive element. It can be used for walls and roofs. Boards are fire-resistant, waterproof, rot-resistant, termite- and vermin-resistant, insulating, sound-absorbing, free of harmful emissions, and accept a wide range of finishes. Read more…

ROMA Domus Mineral Paints

Roma
Our Domus paints are excellent interior finish paints and primers for sheetrock, wood, plasters, and trim. They are derived from natural materials, washable (matte sheen and above), free of toxic chemicals, free of asthmagens, hypoallergenic, and permeable, prohibit bacteria that form mold, and absorb CO2 (so no Sick Building Syndrome). They are ideal for use in commercial and residential areas: offices, schools, medical facilities, and homes. Easy to apply—spray, roll, or brush. Read more…

Ecococon Straw Panels

Ecococon
Prefabricated load-bearing Straw Panels are made for cost-efficient and precise construction of super-insulated houses. The Ecococon modular building system is made from 99.4% rapidly renewable and mostly locally sourced materials (straw and wood). The panels have been successfully applied in several passive houses. The modularity, use of small-sized timber, and the homogeneous look of the straw surface set this product apart.Read more...

Haploblocks

Haplobuilt
Haploblocks are prefabricated modular building enclosure components assembled and connected on site. All materials are biodegradable or recyclable. The manufacture and assembly is simple, requiring few tools, little energy, and no water. Haploblocks can be disassembled and used again in new construction. Regional manufacturing further reduces energy and environmental costs and promotes social discourse and economic justice. Read more…

ECOR® Universal Construction Panels

ECOR
ECOR® Universal Construction Panels come in various shapes and sizes. Fabrication, shipping, handling, and assembly are all low-cost. Panels are lightweight, low volume and designed for anyone to assemble, easily. ECOR® is a sustainable material technology that utilizes a ubiquitous raw material, available worldwide: waste cellulose fiber. ECOR® manufacturing includes a closed loop water system with 99.5% reutilization. Read more…

Below is our first photo of the new homes going up around the historic school!

And here’s the architects’ rendering of what they’ll look like complete:

Finally, here’s an aerial rendering of the whole development:

In addition to affordable housing, Make It Right’s Kansas City development will include community gardens and kitchen, a gym, auditorium, health clinic, police foot patrol office, job training center and more. Get all the details here. The project is expected to be complete by the end of this year. We can’t wait to welcome Kansas City residents to their new homes soon!