Today, everyone is focused on naturalness, health, environmental, and resource preservation, responsible products and companies… This trend has emerged in all industries, and cosmetics are no exception. At the 2018 U’Cosmetics conference dedicated to upcycling, Christine Guinebretière, of the EPEA office in Paris (Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency), introduced the Cradle to Cradle (C2C) certification. A new standard to be adopted?
EPEA is a global ‘circular economy agency with a positive impact’. They are the ones that created the C2C certification. The Cradle to Cradle notion was conceptualized by Michael Braungart, PhD in Chemistry, who started his career working for the Greenpeace association, and eco-architect William McDonough.
C2C principles
‘The principle is that the human species is not separated from Nature and can actually imitate it,’ explained Christine Guinebretière. ‘When fruit tree flowers fall on the ground, no one believes they are waste. They are part of the fruit tree ecosystem, of the cycle that keeps the tree alive and productive. The Cradle to Cradle principle involves creating our products and designing them so they can enter these cycles and never become or generate waste. And that is actually possible.’
Under this concept, the circular economy and upcycling cannot be dissociated and are closely related to the notion of positive impact.
Today, to Christine Guinebretière, sustainable development mainly consists in reducing the negative impacts of goods production. By contrast, C2C involves mobilizing all types of skills to try and generate the most positive impacts possible on health and the environment. That is what eco-design is about. And …
