I got a package in the mail today, and as I was ripping it open with excitement I couldn’t help but notice a
small logo on the back of the Priority Mail envelope.
Curious, I stopped my frantic ripping and looked closer. It was an emblem that said “Cradle to Cradle Certified: Silver”.
Here’s the description on the USPS Priority Mail envelope:
Cradle to Cradle Certification is awarded to products that pursue an innovative vision of ecologically-intelligent design that eliminates the concept of waste. This USPS packaging has been certified for its material content, recyclability, and manufacturing characteristics.
Eureka!
I looked further, and noticed that the Priority Mail envelope was made of a #2 plastic, which means I can recycle it. Even more fab.
Now my curiosity was really going. I mean, I’m a green blogger. How could I not know what Cradle to Cradle is? I mean, I’d never even heard of it.
So of course, I had to go on an investigation frenzy right away. Here’s what I found out.
The Cradle to Cradle Certification is dished out by a design firm called MBDC. Here’s a quote, from their website, on exactly what they do:
Cradle to Cradle Design is a fundamental conceptual shift away from the flawed system design of the Industrial Revolution. Instead of designing products and systems based on the take-make-waste model of the last century (‘cradle to grave’), MBDC’s Cradle to Cradle Design paradigm is powering the Next Industrial Revolution, in which products and services are designed based on patterns found in nature, eliminating the concept of waste entirely and creating an abundance that is healthy and sustaining.
Eco-Effectiveness is MBDC’s design strategy for realizing these results by optimizing materials to be food either for nature’s ecosystems or for humans’ industrial systems—perpetually circulating in closed systems that create value and are inherently healthy and safe.
Instead of designing cradle-to-grave products, dumped in landfills at the end of their ‘life,’ MBDC transforms industry by creating products for cradle-to-cradle cycles, whose materials are perpetually circulated in closed loops. Maintaining materials in closed loops maximizes material value without damaging ecosystems.
As far as I understand it, they’re a design/consulting firm that helps companies become more eco-friendly, both in the way they do business and they products they put out. Instead of designing products destined for the landfill, they help create products that can be used again and again.
And, the United States Postal Service has jumped on board. Kudos to them, and to MBDC for doing such amazing work.
If you’d like to see a complete list of which companies have earned Cradle to Cradle Certification thus far, click here.
And for those of you getting in tons of packages from the Post Office this holiday, keep in mind that those Priority Mail envelopes can be recycled.
