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Dr. Michael Braungart and William McDonough have been awarded the prestigious WorldGBC David Gottfried Global Green Building Entrepreneurship Award for their unique, innovative and entrepreneurial contribution to the global green building movement.

Tai Lee Siang, WorldGBC’s Chairman, honoured the two individuals at a special ceremony today in Jaipur, India. The WorldGBC’s David Gottfried Award recognises individuals whose contributions have been particularly pioneering, displaying an entrepreneurism that has helped to transform or advance the green building mission. Braungart and McDonough were chosen as this year’s winners for their unique approach to a business-led green building strategy. In particular, the pair were praised for their 2002 book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, which strongly advocated for Cradle to Cradle approaches within businesses to design products which eliminate the concept of waste, use clean energy, value clean water and healthy ecosystems. About the green building movement Dr. Braungart said: "We need an architecture that celebrates the human footprint, buildings in which the air is better than outside and which clean the water and the air, just like trees."

Tai Lee Siang, Chairman of WorldGBC, told the awardees: “I am truly inspired by your role as champions of the global green building movement and how your book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, remains the blueprint for sustainable design some 15 years on from its publication. I’d like to congratulate you on this achievement, and wish you all the success for the future as you continue on our collective journey to green buildings for everyone, everywhere.”

Dr. Michael Braungart is a chemist and CEO of the Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency (EPEA), an international environmental research and consulting institute headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. William McDonough is an architect and designer, and the founder of William McDonough + Partners, an architecture and community design firm based in Charlottesville and San Francisco, USA. Together, the pair founded McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC) in 1995 and developed the Cradle to Cradle® Design Framework as well as the Cradle to Cradle CertifiedTM Products Program. They join an illustrious list of previous David Gottfried Award winners, including include Pierre-André de Chalendar, CEO of Saint Gobain (2016), and Nils Kok, Founder and CEO of GRESB (2014).

If you are interested to interview Michael Braungart regarding the WorldGBC David Gottfried Award, please contact Patrick Meiss at +49 40 600 90 790 or meiss@braungart.com.