Let’s All Cradle Our Environment

Our trip to Berlin was very insightful! Every guest speaker was passionate about sustainability and making Germany a better place for everyone. Monika Griefahn, an environmental advocate, spoke to us on Wednesday about the Cradle-to-Cradle Service Model. This was the first time I had heard of the term, and I didn’t know what to expect from this conversation. Before I dive in deep, I would like to provide a bit of background about Greenpeace in Germany. The Greenpeace was founded in 1980 to turn Germany into a green country and do more for the environment. However, their journey didn’t start there. About three years prior, there was a proposal for producing and using nuclear energy. Protests did break out upon hearing this news and the people were strongly against this new act. This was the first of many protests against nuclear energy which prompted the founding of the Greenpeace group.

The Greenpeace people were driven by the idea of staying sustainable and fighting against anything that would hurt Germany’s environment. They took action when German ships would dump chemical waste in the ocean. The government’s act on continuing nuclear energy ignited a flame on the people. There has always been a clear connection between politics and the people. If there is an act that people don’t like and don’t find beneficial, it pushes the citizens to fight for what is right. This is clearly demonstrated through the Greenpeace group.

The continuous acts of Greenpeace and the rise of the Buendnis 90 party have allowed Germany to continue its acts on sustainability. Monika did an amazing job speaking about how much power and influence Germans have on their government. In the 1970’s, it might have been seen as impossible to be a nuclear-free country but in 2021, they were nearly almost 50% renewable energy.

Monika mentions that although Germany has made significant changes, there is still room for improvement. This was part of the lecture in which she mentioned the Cradle-to-Cradle method. This method allows products to have several life cycles and to be fully recyclable. In her session, she uses a cherry blossom tree as an example of this method. A cherry blossom tree has many purposes, like providing shade on a sunny day, producing oxygen, supporting biodiversity, etc. A simple tree that serves many.

The majority of the products tend to serve only one problem. Our economic structure in the US has always been to provide more in less time. We heavily rely on Amazon, Shein, and Temu for cheaper, quick production time products. Rather than investing in products that can last longer, are sustainable, and provide more, we are easily tempted and go for something that harms the environment. Germany is quite the opposite. Monika, at the end of the presentation, had pitched a couple of ideas that would make a huge difference and help solve this dilemma. She talks about housing that can provide environmental benefits.

Rather than destroying trees, what if the city built around them or implemented them into their architecture? Or even simple acts of adding solar panels or creating products with sustainable parts.

Some questions that did arise were:

1. What are some challenges that arise from promoting a cradle-to-cradle method from a state perspective and as a whole?

2. How does one stop companies from pursuing a cradle-to-grave method other than its sustainability benefits?

3. When transferring to a cradle-to-cradle method, how will this affect their trading economy?

#Berlin