The Cradle to Cradle ("C2C") concept is a biomimetic approach that models human industry on nature's processes, viewing materials as nutrients circulating in healthy and safe metabolisms. It seeks to create systems that are not only efficient but also essentially waste free. A growing number of building owners and developers are looking to implement it in their buildings, be it to increase the productivity of their workforce, or to provide a differentiator.

The C2C concept is reasonably covered in building construction; however, it is a rather uncharted area in building services, making it difficult for MEP engineers to develop C2C-inspired designs.

Arup set out to bridge this gap, establishing how C2C-inspired design would look like in the different MEP disciplines, and researching which systems, products and materials are available in the market to meet the corresponding criteria.

The result is a comprehensive guideline that enables MEP engineers to develop a C2C-inspired design. It covers design criteria, system selection, system sizing, design for deconstruction, as well as material and product selection for the main MEP disciplines, and sets out a number of criteria by which the aptness of a design for C2C can be measured.