Going green should be part of every company’s strategic planning and not solely on the grounds of morality, or consumer pressure, but because, increasingly, the law will require it.

Without a functional green business model it has been difficult for eco-pioneer companies to maintain profitability, despite their best efforts. However, a new model offering a twist on conventional thinking may help to bridge the gap between an idealistic eco-enterprise and the harsh commercial reality.

Firms as diverse as Ben and Jerry’s, AkzoNobel, Ecover, Triumph, Ford International, have taken up this cradle to cradle philosophy, showing in the process that greening production need not mean sacrificing profit at the altar of environmentalism.

Cradle to cradle, or C2C, is a fresh take on the typical “cradle to grave” production process, in which a product is manufactured, used by the consumer, before eventually ending up as landfill. Under C2C, the worn-out product is recovered and remanufactured or recycled into a new product of equal, or even higher, value.

British firm Interface, for example, manufactures and sells carpet. The consumer buys the carpet and underlay, but the top layer technically remains the company’s property and once the carpet is at the end of its useful life, the firm recovers it from the consumer and uses it make a new carpet.

The notion of C2C has been kicking around for years. The term itself was coined in the 1970s, but the concept was developed more recently by academics Michael Braungart and William McDonough in their 2002 book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.

However, unless a business model is effective in the real world, it will remain forever an academic exercise, and Braungart is keen to emphasise that profitability and long-term production are central to the C2C model.

“Traditional green labels involve minimising – reducing our carbon footprint, reducing pollution - but C2C products are actively designed to be good for the environment, instead of less bad,” he says.

This positive outlook has enormous appeal and the upshot is that green-minded consumers, instead of delaying buying a new product, will buy more often.

As opposed to models that advocate cutting back on consumption and apologising for our existence as consumers, C2C allows for both market expansion and improvement to our quality of life. The two are no longer seen as mutually incompatible.

Surprisingly perhaps, chemicals multinational AkzoNobel, now owner of ICI, has seized the quality of life baton and run with it. The company’s sustainability director Andre Veneman has publicly championed C2C working, even though the world is in the jaws of a recession.

AkzoNobel has a number of life-enhancing products in the pipeline. It’s developing a "light and space" paint using new pigment technology that reflects a larger amount of light so you need 20 per cent less lighting.

It’s also developing a paint that helps to purify polluted air by incorporating bacteria into the product that break down harmful airborne particulates.

Braungart explains that, while the public are widely attuned to the dangers of passive smoking, particulates from industry and vehicles are often ignored and, overall, are far more damaging to health.

C2C working has not just been confined to the private sector, the Netherlands government has embraced the philosophy, believing it allows for the continued development of public services without compromising on quality. As a low-lying country, the Netherlands has understandably placed facilitating green working and combating climate change at the top of its agenda and all public buildings in the Netherlands, are now built under C2C principles.

Braungart would like to see the UK as the next stop for C2C. "Businesspeople, designers, scientists, and policy-makers need to adopt this paradigm shift in thinking, because we’re no longer thinking about merely being green. That’s just a slogan. This is really about innovation,” he says.