William McDonough is a world-renowned architect and designer and winner of three U.S. presidential awards: the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development (1996), the National Design Award (2004) and the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award (2003). Time magazine recognized him as a “Hero for the Planet” in 1999, stating, “his utopianism is grounded in a unified philosophy that — in demonstrable and practical ways — is changing the design of the world.”
Cradle to Cradle Design is a philosophy developed by McDonough and German chemist Dr. Michael Braungart in their 2002 book, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. The goal is to frame design as “a beneficial, regenerative force — one that seeks to create ecological footprints to delight in, not lament.”