Case Study: Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute

Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute

The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute is a non-profit organization that educates and empowers manufacturers of products to become a positive force for society and the environment, helping to bring about a new industrial revolution. Born from the transformative work of William McDonough and Michael Braungart, the Institute administers the Cradle to Cradle Certified™ Product Standard and helps designers and manufacturers improve the way they make things.

What we did

Since the inception of the organization, we have played a formative role in the shaping its communications efforts, leading with launch coverage in the Wall Street Journal on the organization’s kickoff event at Google headquarters with the likes of former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger, Chad Hurley of YouTube and Wendy Schmidt of the Schmidt Family Foundation.

Over the years, our support for the organization has included launching the organization’s inaugural education course and product design challenge, engineering opportunities for thought leadership in keynote addresses, panel presentations and trade show floor visibility at key events like Greenbuild, AIA National Convention, Sustainable Brands, SXSW Eco, and the Positive Economy Forum. We also helped launch a new division of the organization focused on evoking sustainability in the fashion and apparel industries: Fashion Positive.

Further, we approached our client with a new idea: we had determined that if we could tap into the marketing and sponsorship spend of the member companies, which equaled roughly $1 million, we could create an internal marketing advocacy program to champion their industry standards. Mission accomplished! 

The first Cradle to Cradle Product Symposium & Innovation Celebration, produced, staffed and managed by Blue Practice, was such a success that the client expanded it to a two-day event the following year and continues every year with this approach. It enables member companies to share best practices and network. Blue Practice produced a marketing summit, managed all program aspects and logistics, and recruited speakers such as Jo Confino from The Guardian and Stacy DeBroff, author and ‘marketing to moms’ guru and CEO of Mom Central Consulting. This effort was designed to form a new member marketing association as a stand alone revenue generator.