Cradle to Cradle Product Design Challenge Expands Prizes, Invites New Entries
Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute Expands Global Design Competition, Opens Submissions for 5th Challenge
The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute is now accepting entries for the next Cradle to Cradle Product Design Challenge. This round launches a new prize for the Best Use of Cradle to Cradle Certified™ Material and new criteria for the Best Use of Fusion 360 category.
The fifth in a series of six design challenges slated to run through early 2018, this challenge is presented by the Institute in partnership with Autodesk, with support from Arconic Foundation.
The new prize category, Best Use of Cradle to Cradle Certified Material, was created to engage designers and students in considering the role of materials in driving positive impact and progress towards a circular economy, according to the Institute’s Education Manager Marisa Guber, who oversees the Challenge.
“As the volume of Cradle to Cradle Certified materials available for use as components in the making of other consumable goods grows, expanding the Challenge to include a prize dedicated to designs that use these materials as building blocks in the creation of next-generation products made for the circular economy is a natural step in the competition’s evolution. It’s also mission critical,” Guber stated.
Initiated to educate, inspire and engage designers and students around the world to use Cradle to Cradle® thinking and regenerative design principles to envision and design products for a circular economy, the Cradle to Cradle Product Design Challenge has attracted 325 design submissions from more than 400 designers in 30 different countries to date.
“The vision of the Cradle to Cradle Product Design Challenge is to educate designers about the value of Cradle to Cradle product design and to create space for them to explore and integrate this methodology into their own processes,” said Lewis Perkins, Institute president. “The evolution of the Challenge is a testament to the design community’s growing engagement with circular design and with methodologies like Cradle to Cradle that push us to fully consider the environmental and human impacts of materials and products to look beyond their immediate life cycle.”
In addition to the new Best Use of Cradle to Cradle Certified Materials prize, the Challenge will also award prizes across the following categories: Best Professional Project, Best Student Project, Best Use of Aluminum, and Best Use of Autodesk Fusion 360.
The prize for the Best Use of Autodesk Fusion 360 will be awarded to the submission that demonstrates the best sustainable design practice with Fusion 360 by applying one or more of the capabilities of the tool, such as lightweighting, shape optimization or durability. Find out more here. The winner of this category will receive either one full pass to Autodesk University 2017 for a professional winner, or $2000 for a student winner.
The winning projects for Best Use of Cradle to Cradle Certified Materials, Best Professional Project, Best Student Project and Best Use of Aluminum will each receive $2,000 US, and projects have the chance to win multiple categories.
CALL FOR ENTRIES
Submissions for the fifth Cradle to Cradle Product Design Challenge are being accepted now through May 14, 2017. Winners will be announced in June.
There is no entry fee for the Challenge. To be eligible, entrants must complete a free two-hour online course, Designing Cradle to Cradle Certified Products for the Circular Economy.
During the entry period, the Institute will also host a new series of free Material Spotlight webinars for designers, educators and students interested in learning about the variety of Cradle to Cradle Certified materials currently listed in the Cradle to Cradle Certified product registry. Dates and times for the webinars will be announced on the Challenge website and via social media.
Entries are invited across five categories:
· NEW: Best Use of Cradle to Cradle Certified Materials
· Best Professional Project
· Best Student Project
· Best Use of Autodesk Fusion 360
· Best Use of Aluminum
Visit C2CCertified.org/connect/2016-design-challenge-4-winners to view previous winners, or C2CCertified.org/connect/design-challenge for more information and to enter.
About the Cradle to Cradle Product Design Challenge
In a world of limited resources, designers have an essential role to play in envisioning products that are composed of safe, sustainable and perpetually recyclable materials, which can retain value as nutrients to fuel growing global economies. The Cradle to Cradle Product Design Challenge aims to engage and inspire designers and students to help design a sustainable future by applying Cradle to Cradle principles to the innovative design of materials and products that can remain in perpetual cycles of use and reuse. Launched in 2015, the Challenge is presented by the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute in partnership with Autodesk and made possible by Alcoa Foundation, both world leaders in leveraging design for a sustainable future. A series of six challenges will run through year-end 2017. More than 230 designers from 30 countries have participated in the Challenges to date.
About the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute
The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute is a non-profit organization whose mission is to turn the making of things into a positive force for people, the economy, and the planet. It administers the Cradle to Cradle CertifiedTM Product Program, a guidance system for assessing and continually improving products based upon five sustainability characteristics: material health, material reuse, renewable energy, water stewardship and social fairness. The Institute is headquartered in Oakland and Amsterdam, NL. For more information, visit C2CCertified.org or follow @C2CCertified on Twitter and Instagram.
