Best Known Methods
Best Known
Methods
ClimatexClimatex Textile
Climatex is the first textile developed as a biological nutrient within the Cradle-to-Cradle concept. In a Cradle-to Cradle process, a product's biological and technical nutrients flow into a discrete closed-loop cycle, providing continued useful like as nourishment to nature or as re-used (100%) materials for new products. With two companies: Design Tex and Rohner; an upholstery fabric was developed that you could literally eat. During the Cradle-to-Cradle design process, thousands of chemical ingredients were reviewed to assure that dyes, finished and fabrics were safe and nutritious for nature. The result is a blended wool fabric that can be removed from its frame when worn out and tossed into the ground to naturally biodegrade effectively as compost. The manufacturing process used to make Climatex actually filters the water during processing: an excellent example of industrial ecology.
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Shaw Ecoworx is the first non-PVC based carpet in the industry. It is an excellent example of industrial ecology and Cradle-to-Cradle process in practice. Through granulation and return to the extrusion process, Ecoworx can be used over and over again by the manufacturing plant. It received the EPA Presidential Green Product Award in 2003. The product was assessed by MBDC Cradle-to-Cradle Design Protocol by William McDonough and Dr. Michael Braungart. The carpet is 40% lighter in weight than PVC based carpet, lowering transportation costs and greenhouse emissions. Shaw is using Nylon 6 which can be broken down and formed into nylon that performs as well as the original over and over again. Other nylons can be recycled but only into lower-value products which means they eventually end up in the landfill. It is highly stable and easily depolymerized into its precursor and made again into Nylon 6. Although Nylon 6 was developed in the 1930's, BASF saw its value only in the last decade as an eco-effective strategy. Additionally, Shaw has a Cradle-to-Cradle program guaranteeing the pickup and re-use of the Ecoworx carpet.
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Kalundborg is an indusrial eco-park that was created 25 years ago on the coast of Denmark. This network of materials, energy and waste stream exchanges between companies and the community. Originally, the motivation behind this industrial symbiosis was to reduce costs by seeking income-producing uses for "waste" products. Gradually, the companies’ and community leaders realized they were also generating environmental benefits. The Kalundborg system consists of five core partners: Asnæs Power Station, Denmark's largest power station, coal-fired, 1,500 megawatts capacity; Statoil Refinery, Denmark's largest, capacity of 3.2 million tons/yr (increasing to 4.8 million tons/yr); Gyproc, a plasterboard factory, producing 14 million square meters of gypsum wallboard annually; Novo Nordisk, an international biotechnological company, with annual sales over $2 billion. The plant at Kalundborg is their largest, and produces pharmaceuticals (including 40% of the world's supply of insulin) and industrial enzymes; and the City of Kalundborg which supplies district heating to 20,000+ residents, as well as water to homes and industries. Over the last two decades, these partners spontaneously developed a series of bilateral exchanges which also include a number of other companies. There was no initial planning of the overall network; it just evolved as a collection of one-to-one deals that made economic sense for the pairs of participants in each. The symbiosis started when Gyproc located its facility in Kalundborg to take advantage of the fuel gas available from Statoil. Today, Gyproc is still the only company to have located there to take advantage of an available supply. In 1976 the Novo-Nordisk plant started the pattern of materials flows, matching the evolving energy flows at Kalundborg. Sludge from Novo Nordisk's processes and from the fish farm's water treatment plant is used as fertilizer on nearby farm. This is a large portion of the entire Kalundborg exchange network, totaling over 1 million tons per year. A cement company uses the power plant's desulfurized fly ash. Asnæs reacts the SO2 in its stack gas with calcium carbonate, thereby making calcium sulfate (gypsum), which it sells to Gyproc, supplying 2/3 of the latter's needs. The refinery's desulfurization operation produces pure liquid sulfur, which is trucked to Kemira, a sulfuric acid producer. Surplus yeast from insulin production at Novo Nordisk goes to farmers as pig food.
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