Michael Braungart
German chemist and environmental thinker
Michael Braungart is a German chemist and former Greenpeace activist who argues that industry can be redesigned to benefit the environment. He co-wrote Cradle to Cradle and The Upcycle with William McDonough.
2 summaries 30 min of listening
German Born 1958 in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany
About Michael Braungart
Michael Braungart was born in 1958 and trained as a chemist, with studies in chemistry and process engineering at universities including Konstanz and Darmstadt. In the 1980s he worked with Greenpeace, helping to set up its chemistry department and taking it over in 1985. He received his doctorate from the University of Hannover that same year. In 1987 he founded EPEA, a research and consultancy organization based in Hamburg that focuses on products and processes designed for closed loops that do not harm people or nature. He also co-founded McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry in Charlottesville, Virginia. He holds academic chairs at several universities, including Erasmus University Rotterdam and Leuphana University Lüneburg. With William McDonough he wrote Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (2002) and The Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability – Designing for Abundance (2013). He has received several honors, including a Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award from the US Environmental Protection Agency in 2003.