WILLIAM McDONOUGH Co-author, Cradle to Cradle Founding principal of William McDonough + Partners
William McDonough is a globally recognized leader in sustainable design and development. He co-authored Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things( 2002), widely recognized as a seminal text of both the sustainability and the Circular Economy design movements.
Through McDonough Innovation, McDonough advises commercial and government leaders worldwide on ESG, sustainability, Circular Economy, and the design of products and facilities. He has worked with CEOs from companies such as Ford Motor Company, Gap, Google, Herman Miller, Hero MotoCorp, Proctor & Gamble, Starbucks, Unilever, and Walmart.
He is also an architect and founder of William McDonough + Partners, a firm known for having designed notable landmark buildings in the sustainability movement. Through MBDC, he co-created the Cradle to Cradle Certified ® Products Program and co-founded the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, which administers the program today. The product standard is recognized by the world’ s leading retailers, including Amazon, Home Depot, Walgreens and Walmart.
He has been active with the World Economic Forum for over 25 years and served as the inaugural chair of the WEF Meta-Council on the Circular Economy. In 2016, McDonough articulated a " New Language for Carbon " for human use as living, durable and fugitive carbon in the journal Nature as " Carbon is Not The Enemy." In 2020, he also articulated the Circular Carbon Economy as a design framework at the G20 and is developing a granular approach to applying Circular Carbon Economy principles to products.
Prof. McDonough is a Distinguished Research Professor at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology( KAUST). He has also been on the faculty of Stanford University( 2004-2021) and served as the A. D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University( 1999-2004) and Dean of the School of Architecture and the Edward E. Elson Endowed Chair at the University of Virginia( 1994-1999).
McDonough received the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development( 1996), the first U. S. EPA Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award( 2003), the National Design Award( 2004) and the Fortune Award for Circular Economy Leadership( 2017). Time magazine recognized him as a“ Hero for the Planet,” noting:“ His utopianism is grounded in a unified philosophy that— in demonstrable and practical ways— is changing the design of the world," and in 2019 Fortune magazine named him # 24 of the World ' s 50 Greatest Leaders. Recently, McDonough was named to the inaugural TIME100 Climate List of the 100 Most Influential Leaders Driving Business Climate Action.