William McDonough is a world-renowned architect and designer and winner of
three U.S. presidential awards: the Presidential Award for Sustainable
Development (1996), the National Design Award (2004) and the Presidential Green
Chemistry Challenge Award (2003). Time magazine recognized him as a "Hero for
the Planet" in 1999, stating that "his utopianism is grounded in a unified
philosophy that in demonstrable and practical ways is changing the design of
the world."
Mr. McDonough has been a leader in the sustainable development movement
since its inception. He designed and built the first solar-heated house in
Ireland in 1977 while still a student at Yale University and designed the first
"green office" in the U.S. for the Environmental Defense Fund in 1985. Mr.
McDonough was commissioned in 1991 by the City of Hannover to write The
Hannover Principles: Design for Sustainability, the official design guidelines
for the 2000 World's Fair, which the City presented to the 1992 U.N. Earth
Summit in Brazil. He and German chemist Dr. Michael Braungart co-authored
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (North Point Press, 2002),
which has now been published in German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, and Korean
translations. The two were also the subject of a 2001 documentary video, The
Next Industrial Revolution, from Earthome Productions. Mr McDonough is founder
and principal of two design firms. William McDonough + Partners, Architecture
and Community Design, has created numerous landmarks of the sustainability
movement since 1981, designing homes, offices, corporate campuses, academic
buildings, communities, and cities. McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC)
employs a comprehensive Cradle to Cradle design protocol to chemical
benchmarking, supply-chain integration, energy and materials assessment,
clean-production qualification, and sustainability issue management and
optimization.
McDonough and his firms have received numerous national and international
architectural, environmental, industrial and design awards for their work. A
recognized leader in sustainable design and development, he writes and speaks
extensively on his design philosophy and practice. His vision of the hopeful,
positive, and inspiring possibilities of an environmentally and economically
intelligent future by design has made him a highly sought-after speaker for a
wide range of audiences both internationally and in the U.S.
