Cradle-to-Cradle in Building Services

While the concept of Cradle to Cradle (C2C) is reasonably covered in building construction and finishes, it is rather 'uncharted area' in the building services – MEP engineers struggle to define what a C2C design for their discipline could look like, and only a few manufacturers have ventured into offering C2C-certified or -inspired products. The authors set out to change this by providing a comprehensive guidance for MEP engineers on how to design a C2C building in their discipline; they cover design criteria, system selection, system sizing, design for de-construction, and material / product selection for all of the main MEP disciplines (water and drainage, heating, cooling, ventilation, electrical installations, IT & data, vertical transport, fire protection, controls). In addition, the document sets out a number of criteria by which the 'C2C aptness' of a design can be measured, providing minimum criteria and a specific 'C2C vision' for each discipline; these criteria could form the basis for a future assessment tool for C2C buildings.