Cradle to Cradle Products, Modularity and Closed Loop Supply Chains

Cradle to Cradle (C2C) is a concept which is gaining acceptance as a way to design products which as a minimum are sustainable. This paper seeks to contribute to the C2C methodology by providing guidelines for determining product architecture in the product design process, which supports the C2C concept. The paper describes the linkages between product architecture and reusability in the technosphere (as opposed to the biosphere) which is an enabler for C2C. It is concluded that modular product architecture designing product families based on product platforms rather than designing individual products can enable C2C. Furthermore, reconfigurability also has potential to increase the reusability of parts of products.