Cradle to Cradle® (the principles), Cradle to Cradle Certified® Product Standard (the framework) and C2C Certified® (the certification), together form the global standard in safe and circular, sustainable product design.  540 WORLD is your authentic UK gateway to this safe, new world of responsible circular design - intentionally good for people and planet.

Cradle to Cradle® Principles

Looking at the world via the inspiration of nature, everything should be a resource for something else. Based on the ideas of regeneration & cycles of materials, energy & biological flows, there are 3 key Cradle to Cradle® design principles:

• Eliminate the Concept of waste – ie avoid technical materials leaking into biology as this results in pollution & waste, instead optimise manufacturing processes & materials to keep their health and value in closed-loop cycles, good for people & planet.
• Rely on natural energy flows - ie use clean & renewable energy.
• Celebrate diversity – ie regenerate & celebrate all diversity, from minerals to biodiversity, by keeping safe materials in continuous cycles, biological products in the biosphere & technical products in the technosphere.

The C2C Certified® Product Standard

The standard provides designers, manufacturers, and suppliers with a framework for continually improving what products are made of and how they are made. The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute (C2CPII) is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to maximizing the positive impacts of products and materials and they are the standard setting and certification body for the Cradle to Cradle Certified® Product Standard and for Cradle to Cradle Certified® – the certification mark. The standard has been recognized globally as a gold standard for safe, circular economy ready products and materials because of their robust evidence-based, multi-attribute framework resulting in their comprehensive:

• third-party verified assessment and independently audited certification.
• most ambitious, actionable standard for designing & making products that are safe, circular & responsibly made. 

Cradle to Cradle Certified®

A C2C Certified® product is assessed by independent assessors (eg chemists & toxicologists) & then audited by C2CPII against five performance categories, namely:

• Material Health – Chemicals & materials used in the product are selected to prioritize the protection of human health & the environment, generating a positive impact on the quality of materials available for future use & cycling.
• Product Circularity – Products are intentionally designed for their next use & are actively cycled in their intended cycling pathway(s).
• Clean Air & Climate Protection – Product manufacturing results in a positive impact on air quality, the renewable energy supply & the balance of climate changing greenhouse gases.
• Water & Soil Stewardship – Water & soil are treated as precious & shared resources. Watersheds & soil ecosystems are protected & clean water & healthy soils are available to people & all other organisms.
• Social Fairness – Companies are committed to upholding human rights & applying fair and equitable business practices.

The certification & standard is based on the concept of continuous improvement. Each certification category has four possible achievement levels namely, Bronze, Silver, Gold & Platinum, with each level building on the preceding one. This creates a framework which helps identify business opportunities around where products can focus & improve. The product’s overall certification score is equal to the lowest level achieved across the five categories. The progress and scores across the five performance categories can be viewed publicly on the certification scorecard at www.c2ccertified.org

540 WORLD believes that this methodology gives consumers a five-fold, holistic certification that is second-to-none and manufacturers and specifiers a clear pathway to navigate their safe and circular objectives which is why we are so proud to see the Environment Agency adopt C2C Certified materials in their contracts from 2021. This comprehensive rigour ensures that Cradle to Cradle Certified® products are truly planet-positive in design, ingredients, manufacture and circularity - little wonder there is now global demand for certifying products and using certified products in projects where verified data is important.

We do not certify products, as we are consultants, not assessors. We support and fast-track material health statements through our unique network of experts and chemists to enable companies to pre-optimize themselves, through critical insights into the five Cradle to Cradle® design criteria, prior to certification applications. We point you to local or international assessor bodies qualified to complete the assessments and we make introductions to the C2CPII regarding Cradle to Cradle Certified® queries.

We aim to educate and onboard UK suppliers to regenerative, sustainable, innovative design science for their products and projects, benchmarked by healthy nature and C2C® principles with materials & products accredited by Cradle to Cradle Certified®.  See below for just a handful of the amazing certified materials we are working with in projects and related services.