Michael Braungart
Encyclopedia
Michael Braungart is a German
chemist who advocates that humans can reduce our negative environmental impact by redesigning industrial production processes. A former Greenpeace
activist who once lived in a tree as protest, he is now considered to be a visionary environmental thinker.
Founder of EPEA International Umweltforschung GmbH in Hamburg, Germany, and co-founder of MBDC McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry in Charlottesville, Virginia, Dr. Braungart is currently a professor of Process Engineering at the University of Applied Sciences in Suderburg
(Fachhochschule Nordostniedersachsen), also serving as director of an interdisciplinary materials flow management masters program.
He currently holds the Cradle-to-Cradle chair at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
, Germany, Dr. Braungart went on to investigate the chemical processes of industrial production techniques with the Chemistry Department at Konstanz
, Germany. He subsequently led the formation of the Chemistry Section of Greenpeace International. By the time he completed his PhD in Chemistry at the University of Hannover in 1985, he had assumed leadership of Greenpeace Chemistry.
In 1987, Dr. Braungart founded the EPEA Umweltforschung in Hamburg. At the heart of EPEA is Cradle to Cradle Design, to create products oriented toward a life-cycle economy.
In addition to his achievements with EPEA, Dr. Braungart also serves as Scientific Manager of the Hamburg Environmental Institute, the non-profit research center which produces the "Top 50 Study". This study ranks the quality of environmentally-sound production of companies within the chemical industry. He has initiated scholarly and scientific inquiry into the adverse environmental and physiological impacts of industrially-produced consumer goods.
Dr. Braungart also works together with American architect and designer William A. McDonough in their product design and development firm, McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry. In partnership with McDonough, Braungart released the book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
in 2002.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
chemist who advocates that humans can reduce our negative environmental impact by redesigning industrial production processes. A former Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
activist who once lived in a tree as protest, he is now considered to be a visionary environmental thinker.
Founder of EPEA International Umweltforschung GmbH in Hamburg, Germany, and co-founder of MBDC McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry in Charlottesville, Virginia, Dr. Braungart is currently a professor of Process Engineering at the University of Applied Sciences in Suderburg
Suderburg
Suderburg is a municipality in the district of Uelzen, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approx. 11 km southwest of Uelzen.Suderburg is also the seat of the Samtgemeinde Suderburg.- Municipal divisions :...
(Fachhochschule Nordostniedersachsen), also serving as director of an interdisciplinary materials flow management masters program.
He currently holds the Cradle-to-Cradle chair at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Career
After completing studies in Process Engineering in DarmstadtDarmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...
, Germany, Dr. Braungart went on to investigate the chemical processes of industrial production techniques with the Chemistry Department at Konstanz
Konstanz
Konstanz is a university city with approximately 80,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in the south-west corner of Germany, bordering Switzerland. The city houses the University of Konstanz.-Location:...
, Germany. He subsequently led the formation of the Chemistry Section of Greenpeace International. By the time he completed his PhD in Chemistry at the University of Hannover in 1985, he had assumed leadership of Greenpeace Chemistry.
In 1987, Dr. Braungart founded the EPEA Umweltforschung in Hamburg. At the heart of EPEA is Cradle to Cradle Design, to create products oriented toward a life-cycle economy.
In addition to his achievements with EPEA, Dr. Braungart also serves as Scientific Manager of the Hamburg Environmental Institute, the non-profit research center which produces the "Top 50 Study". This study ranks the quality of environmentally-sound production of companies within the chemical industry. He has initiated scholarly and scientific inquiry into the adverse environmental and physiological impacts of industrially-produced consumer goods.
Dr. Braungart also works together with American architect and designer William A. McDonough in their product design and development firm, McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry. In partnership with McDonough, Braungart released the book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things is a 2002 non-fiction book by German chemist Michael Braungart and U.S. architect William McDonough. It is a manifesto detailing how to achieve their Cradle to Cradle Design model. It calls for a radical change in industry: a switch from a...
in 2002.
External links
- Waste = Food Documentary - A documentary on the Cradle to Cradle design concept of Michael Braungart and William McDonough.
- The Next Industrial Revolution, a Documentary film about William McDonough and Michael Braungart
- Dust to Dust no longer an interview with Michael Braungart, in Science & Theology NewsScience & Theology NewsScience & Theology News was a monthly international newspaper of the Templeton Foundation that focused on science and religion and dialogue between them, specifically the point of view that both are worthwhile and compatible endeavors.Harold G...
by Chhavi Sachdev - Braungart.com
- Royal Institute of British Architecture: William McDonough & Michael Braungart: Cradle to Cradle (video)
- Cradle to Cradle Design: A Deeper Shade of Green Watch for products that meet this stringent new eco-certification standard Amanda Kimble Mother Earth NewsMother Earth NewsMother Earth News is a bi-monthly American magazine that has a circulation of 475,000. It is based in Topeka, Kansas.Approaching environmental problems from a down-to-earth, practical, how-to standpoint, Mother Earth News has, since the magazine’s founding in 1970, been a pioneer in the promotion...
Feb./March 2011