Abstract:

Cradle-2-Cradle is a biomimetic approach to the design of products and systems in which human industry is modeled on processes in nature and materials are viewed as nutrients that circulate in a healthy, safe metabolism. This means that a product is designed so that its materials and components can be reused or recycled indefinitely - as a regenerative design. This makes products "circular" and reduces their environmental impact. The Cradle-2-Cradle strategy can contribute to the action plans launched as part of the European Green Deal, a European Union initiative launched in 2019 to tackle the challenges of climate change and the transition to a sustainable economy. Cradle-2-Cradle distinguishes between at least two different approaches: "eco-efficient" and "eco-effective". Conventional strategies of the "eco-efficient" approach aim to quantitatively reduce and minimize the unintended negative consequences of production and consumption processes, while the "eco-effective" approach is a qualitative approach based on improving the capabilities of industry to enable products and processes that support nature and the environment. It is not only industry that can take action here, but each individual.

This paper describes the "eco-effective" method in an interdisciplinary seminar at a public art college with a focus on teacher training as artist-teacher and designer-teacher for secondary education, including collaboration with the paper workshop of the public university and a private design university with a focus on management issues. The aim of this course is to combine interdisciplinary skills in a sustainable context in order to promote sustainable awareness. Using the Applied Design Thinking method, students will work together to develop sustainable project ideas in the spirit of the circular economy and design them through to possible implementation. Research questions such as: What does regenerative design mean? How can you work together in an interdisciplinary team on this topic? How can you earn a living with such a sustainable concept? How can these sustainable concerns be transferred to the school as a teaching concept? Accordingly, this course is designed for both school and extracurricular education work.

Selected existing projects are critically analyzed, design management is taught, there is input on Cradle-2-Cradle from experts as well as on the production and recycling of paper and its raw materials. Design thinking is used as a method to find interesting topics in the sense of a student-led approach and to subsequently form interest groups.

The prospective art educators learn about interdisciplinary connections to subject areas such as geography and economics. The aim is to be able to apply interdisciplinary knowledge about these subject areas in order to teach them to pupils at school. Here, the artistic teaching subjects act as a bridge to other subject areas that are taught in a fragmented way at secondary schools. Or they are given an idea of how they could become entrepreneurs with one of these ideas and concepts. In return, the students at the private university have the opportunity to work together with the students on the art and design teaching degree course and the paper workshop on an interdisciplinary basis and learn about teaching strategies from them. The joint work will be recorded in a book. Student approaches, results and also the evaluation of the project will be presented.

Keywords:

Cradle-2-cradle, eco-efficient, entrepreneurship education, sustainability, management by design, team-skills, student-led education, teacher training, art & design education, climate change, green deal, biomimetics, regenerative design, circular economy, interdisciplinary.