Biography

Download PDF: William McDonough BIOGRAPHY

William McDonough is an advisor, designer, thought leader, and author. His vision for a future of abundance for all is helping companies and communities think differently. Together they are changing the world.

William McDonough is a globally recognized leader in sustainable development. Trained as an architect, McDonough’s interests and influence range widely, and he works at scales from the global to the molecular.

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.”

In 1996, McDonough received the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development, and in 2003 he earned the first U.S. EPA Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award for his work with Shaw Industries. In 2004, he received the National Design Award for exemplary achievement in the field of environmental design. McDonough is the architect of many of the recognized flagships of sustainable design, including the Ford Rouge truck plant in Dearborn, Michigan; the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies at Oberlin College; and NASA’s “space station on Earth,” Sustainability Base, one of the most innovative facilities in the federal portfolio.

McDonough has written and lectured extensively on design as the first signal of human intention. He was commissioned in 1991 to write The Hannover Principles: Design for Sustainability as guidelines for the City of Hannover’s EXPO 2000, still recognized two decades after publication as a touchstone of sustainable design. In 2002, McDonough and the German chemist Michael Braungart co-authored Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (North Point Press), which is widely acknowledged as a seminal text of the sustainability movement. Their new book, The Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability–Designing for Abundance (North Point Press, 2013) came out this spring.

McDonough advises commercial and governmental leaders worldwide through McDonough Advisors. He is also active with William McDonough + Partners, his architecture practice with offices in Charlottesville, Virginia, and San Francisco, California, as well as McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry, the Cradle to Cradle consulting firm co-founded with Braungart. He has co-founded, with Braungart, not-for-profit organizations to allow public accessibility to Cradle to Cradle thinking. These include GreenBlue (2000), to convene industry groups around Cradle to Cradle issues, and the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute (2009), founded at the invitation of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to create a global standard for the development of safe and healthy products. McDonough also co-founded Make It Right (2006) with Brad Pitt to bring affordable Cradle to Cradle-inspired homes to the New Orleans Lower 9th Ward after Hurricane Katrina.

EDUCATION

Yale University, School of Architecture, Master of Architecture, 1976
Dartmouth College, Bachelor of Arts, Magna cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, 1973

ACADEMIC

University of Virginia

Dean, School of Architecture and Edward E. Elson Endowed Chair, 1994–1999
Darden School of Business, Professor of Business Administration & Alumni Research Professor, 1999–present

University of Cambridge

Sustainability Leadership Council, founding member, 2007–present

Stanford University

Consulting Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2004–present

Yale University

School of Forestry & Environmental Studies Leadership Council, 2002–present

Arizona State University

International Board of Trustees for Sustainability, 2007–present

Instituto de Empresa, Madrid, Spain

Eco-Intelligent Management Center, Chair, 2004–2006

Cornell University

A.D. White Professor-at-Large, 1999–2004

Tongji University, Shanghai

Honorary Professor, 2004

INTERNATIONAL

China-U.S. Center for Sustainable Development

U.S. Chairman and Member of the Board of Councilors, 1999–2009
Chairman Emeritus of the U.S. Board of Councilors, 2009-present

U.N. Conference on Environment & Development (The Earth Summit)

Official Representative for Architecture and City Planning, International Union of Architects and the American Institute of Architects (dual role), Rio de Janeiro, 1992

Preparatory Committee for UNCED (The Earth Summit)

Official Representative, New York, 1992

COMMERCIAL

Walmart

External Advisory Council, 2009–present

General Electric

Ecomagination, Board of Advisors, 2008–2009

Dow Jones Sustainability Index

Advisory Board, 2004-present

VantagePoint Capital Partners

Senior Advisor, 2004–present

Cherokee Sustainability Council

member, present

NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS

Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute

cofounder, 2010

World Economic Forum

Cultural Leader 2002–2008
Global Agenda Council, Future of Sustainable Construction, Chairman, 2008–2009
Global Agenda Council on Design, 2010

Make It Right Foundation

cofounder, 2006
Board Member, 2006–present

Healthy Child Healthy World

Advisory Board, 2006–present

GreenBlue

cofounder, 2002

President’s Council on Sustainable Development

Special Advisor to President Clinton, 1993–1996

ASSOCIATIONS

American Institute of Architects

Fellow, 1997–present
Committee on the Environment, Founding Member, 1989–1993

Royal Institute of British Architects

International Fellow, 2008–present

Urban Land Institute

Fellow, 1999–present

U.S. Green Building Council

Charter Member, 1993–present

American Society of Landscape Architects

Honorary Membership, 2008

SELECTED HONORS AND AWARDS

United States Presidential Award for Sustainable Development, 1996
The Smithsonian Institution, Cooper-Hewitt Museum, National Design Award, 2004
Presidential Green Chemistry Award (for work with Shaw Industries), 2004
21st Century Visionary Science Leadership Award, U.S. EPA, 2008
Hero for the Planet, Time Magazine, 1999
Benjamin Botwinick Prize for Ethical Practice in the Professions, Columbia University Business School, 2003
I.D. Forty Design Award, I.D. Magazine, 2001
Designer of the Year, Interiors Magazine, 1999