Of course, we’re not the only ones with an Earth Day related contest – I just received my newsletter from MBDC (McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry) and saw this great contest between MBDC and one of Greenroofs.com‘s perennial favorites, Inhabitat (I get Inhabitat’s Daily Digest as well, but don’t always read it right away since it has so many cool posts – I do need enough time to read them all!).

To celebrate Earth Week, the two have joined up to offer Inhabitat readers  four fabulous prizes  during Earth Week.  Each winner will receive and a copy of the book  Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things and  the following Cradle to Cradle Certified^CM products:

Monday: Method products & Casabella Eclipse cleaning system
Tuesday:  Pendleton Eco-Wise wool throw
Wednesday:  Herman Miller Sayl work chair
Thursday:  Shaw Ultra Shag area rug (as featured in InStyle Magazine)
Friday:  Winners are announced

At the 2001  Greenprints Conference Visionary Dinner here in Atlanta, I had the pleasure of (briefly) meeting early green architect  William  McDonough (after standing in a long line).  I had become aware of his firm’s work when I still a student of landscape architecture at the University of Georgia in the late 1990’s and had encountered the awesome  Gap Headquarters (901 Cherry).  Former Partner & Director of Practice  Kevin Burke was very helpful to me in my initial studies of greenroof technology, and I’m a big fan of William McDonough + Partners‘ work.

Cradle to Cradle Certified^CM products resulted after the wonderful success of the book  Cradle to Cradle, 2002 from North Point Press, New York, NY, written by William McDonough and environmental chemist Michael Braungart.  I fully embraced the philosophies behind the “paradigm shift” in our thinking towards our built environments and products, and the need for “eco-effectiveness” versus just “eco-efficiency.”

In fact, in my Recommended Readings book review of  Cradle to Cradle, I felt that this book should be a part of every teenager’s reading curriculum so that we may inform and inspire our young minds to rethink and remake our architectural and engineering worlds to be actually good for the Earth.  This is one true “Bible” of green thinking that should be a part of each of our libraries.    If you’re interested, you can read more here.

On a related note, Cradle to Cradle CertifiedCM products will be featured on  The Early Show for Earth Day.  You can tune in to CBS on Friday, April 22 7:00-9:00 am EST to see some of them.

To enter the Inhabitat Green Giveaway, go to www.inhabitat.com and click on the daily blog post.  In my opinion, just receiving a copy of Cradle to Cradle is well worth winning!

Happy Greening,

~ Linda V.