“Escape the efficiency paradigm and move towards effectiveness”
Michael Braungart receives Catalyst Award for Sustainable Construction at LafargeHolcim Forum
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The Holcim Foundation Catalyst Award for substantial, outstanding, and lasting contribution to the advancement of sustainable development was presented to Michael Braungart (right) by Jan Jenisch, CEO of Holcim at the 6th Holcim Forum “Re-materializing Construction” in Cairo, Egypt on April 6, 2019.
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6th LafargeHolcim Forum for Sustainable Construction – Cairo, April 2019.
Michael Braungart, Academic Chair Cradle-to-Cradle for Innovation and Quality at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University in the Netherlands received the Holcim Foundadtion's Catalyst Award.
Visionary environmental thinker Michael Braungart was honored at the LafargeHolcim Forum 2019 with the first ever Catalyst Award for Sustainable Construction in recognition for his thought leadership on sustainability. The award was presented by LafargeHolcim CEO Jan Jenisch at the LafargeHolcim Forum in Cairo – a conference focused on “Re-materializing Construction” to foreground material stocks and flows in order to further the objectives of sustainable construction.
Last updated: May 10, 2019 Cairo, Egypt
Visionary environmental thinker Michael Braungart was honored at the LafargeHolcim Forum 2019 with the first ever Catalyst Award for Sustainable Construction in recognition for his thought leadership on sustainability. The award was presented () by LafargeHolcim CEO Jan Jenisch at the LafargeHolcim Forum in Cairo – a conference focused on “Re-materializing Construction” to foreground material stocks and flows in order to further the objectives of sustainable construction.
His inspiration keynote at the Forum focused on shifting the focus from minimizing the level of human impact towards creating systems with a positive contribution: such as carbon positive buildings and material banks. “Let’s escape the efficiency paradigm of the past and move from a focus on doing less damage to focusing on effectively generating positive outcomes,” he said.
Michael Braungart is a chemist and founder of EPEA International Umweltforschung in Hamburg, Germany, and Cradle-to-Cradle Chair at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands. He co-authored Cradle to Cradle with William McDonough and spear-headed the concept that humans can make a positive instead of a negative environmental impact by redesigning industrial production and remaking material cycles. “If you simply work to perfect the wrong design – all you end up with is a design that is perfectly wrong,” he said.
As part of its role to promote thought leadership in sustainability, the LafargeHolcim Foundation conducts a series of conferences on the topic of sustainable that take place every three years. More than 350 leading thinkers from 55 countries representing the fields of architecture, engineering, planning, and the construction industry attended the 6th Forum that was hosted by The American University in Cairo in April 2019.
6th International LafargeHolcim Forum for Sustainable Construction – “Re-materializing Construction”