Prof. Dr. Michael Braungart

Prof. dr. Michael Braungart has been a professor of Process Engineering at Universität Lüneburg (Germany) since 1994, and he is also serving as director of an interdisciplinary materials flow management masters program. He is the scientific director of EPEA International Umweltforschung GmbH (Hamburg, Germany), which was founded in 1987 and co-founder of McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC) in Charlottesville, Virginia. He co-founded the Hamburger Umwelt Insitute (HUI) in 1989, as well. These organizations share a common set of values that embrace intelligent, aesthetic and eco-effective design and seek to optimize products with the Cradle to Cradle framework. Through these activities,

Professor Braungart has developed tools to design eco-effective products and business systems and has worked with a number of organizations and companies in a range of industries. He has accepted a visiting professorship at the Darden School of Business, lecturing on such topics as eco-efficiency and eco-effectiveness, Cradle-to-Cradle design and Intelligent Materials Pooling, and he continues to teach at universities all over the world.

Michael Braungart is a chemist and founder of EPEA International Umweltforschung GmbH in Hamburg, Germany, and co-founder of MBDC McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Dr. Braungart's work has been published in numerous journals on science, public affairs, design and environment in Europe and the US.

After completing his studies in Process Engineering in Darmstadt, Germany, Dr. Braungart went on to explore the chemical processes of industrial production techniques with the Chemistry Department at Konstanz, Germany. He subsequently spearheaded the formation of the Chemistry Section of Greenpeace International. By the time he completed his PhD in Chemistry at the University of Hannover in 1985, he had assumed leadership of Greenpeace Chemistry.

Dr. Braungart is currently a professor of Process Engineering at Universität Lüneburg (Germany). Recently, he accepted a visiting professorship at the Darden School of Business, lecturing on such topics as eco-efficiency and eco-effectiveness, Cradle-to-Cradle design and Intelligent Materials Pooling.

In 1987, Dr. Braungart founded the Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency (EPEA) in Hamburg.  At the heart of EPEA is the "Intelligent Products System" (IPS), which creates products oriented toward a life-cycle economy and earned the Océ-van der Grinten Award in 1993.

In addition to his achievements within the EPEA, Dr. Braungart also serves as Scientific Manager of the Hamburg Environmental Institute, the non-profit research center which produces the "Top 50 Study": an evaluation of the environmental performance of the world's largest chemical companies.

Working in concert with American architect and designer William A. McDonough in their product design and development firm, McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry, Dr. Braungart's work addresses topics from particles to policy.  He has initiated worldwide scholarly and scientific inquiry into the adverse environmental and physiological impacts of industrially-produced consumer goods.

Furthermore, Dr. Braungart's EPEA co-authored the Hannover Principles of Design: Design for Sustainability, which served as development guidelines for the World's Fair in Hannover, 2000. In 2002, he also co-authored Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things with William McDonough.

Dr. Braungart currently concentrates his efforts at McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry and EPEA Internationale Umweltforschung by working with innovative companies, such as AVEDA, Method, and Shaw on issues of materials assessment, waste and energy balances, life-cycle design, and design for dissasembly. He is also active in designing new products and was instrumental in the creation of the compostable fabric line Climatex® Lifecycle™ with William McDonough.

Topics

    Ecology

    eco-efficiency

    eco-effectiveness

    waste and energy balances

    issues of materials assessment

    Cradle-to-Cradle design

    Intelligent Materials Pooling

    Biological and Technical cycle of Nutrients