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Cradle to Cradle (C2C) is an ambitious approach to sustainable development. People must be able to continue to produce, consume and live in the manner they are accustomed to. However, they must do so in such a way that products, buildings and areas are structured innovatively, without this having adverse effects on the ecological system and without energy supplies being exhausted. C2C encourages innovation, creates employment and results in a clean living environment. These aims are shared by five regional development agencies from Finland (Kainuun Etu), France (ARDI Rhône-Alpes), Italy (Milano Metropoli), Hungary (West Transdanubian RDA) and Romania (North East RDA) and five European public authorities: the Province of Limburg (Lead Partner), the Public Waste Agency of Flanders (OVAM), the Austrian city of Graz, Suffolk County Council in the UK and Slovenia. The ten partners have joined forces in the Cradle to Cradle Network. Their joint aim is to collect in their own regions as many good examples as possible of projects that meet or are likely to meet the aims of the Cradle to Cradle concept, and to share them both mutually and with other interested European regions. As Europe believes that the initiative of the ten partners will boost the objectives of the European Union for economic growth and
eco-innovation, the project has received an INTERREG IVC subsidy and the European Commission will actively participate in C2CN as the eleventh partner.
Four themes
C2CN is focusing on four themes: industry, buildings, area-specific development and governance. In the case of industrial products, materials must be completely safe not only for humans, but for plants and animals as well. In the waste phase, they must be able to be re-used in the ecological or technological cycle while retaining their quality. The product must be easy to dismantle so that the materials can begin a second life. Architecture and urban development must be in line as far as possible with natural ecosystems. Buildings must emit oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide. They must purify water and air, create microclimates and generate
- by using and storing solar and geothermal energy - more energy than they require. Building materials must be ecologically reliable and recyclable. An important basic principle in the case of area-specific development is that as early as the design phase, the dynamics and strengths of the area must be taken as a starting point. Cohesion and coordination between structural elements and the physical substratum, the functions in the area and its users must be taken into account. Governance is the link between the elements and demonstrates how cooperation within public authorities, between public authorities and companies, and within companies, and promoting the awareness of institutions and people can contribute to a change in our society with regard to a more eco-effective structure.
Good examples
Taking the above starting points as a guideline, it was agreed in Brussels that the C2CN partners would meet in the coming weeks with their regional authorities, companies, eco-design agencies and research institutes to collect as many good examples as possible, after which the network will select the best examples. The partners also agreed a number of financial and administrative arrangements.
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