Architect William McDonough is an architect and the founding principal of William McDonough + Partners, an architecture and community design firm based in Charlottesville, Virginia; MBDC, a firm that assists companies in designing profitable and environmentally intelligent solutions; McDonough Innovation, where he is able to advise business and provide targeted ideas and strategic business solutions. A highly regarded speaker and writer, William McDonough s co-authored Cradle to Cradle: Remaking The Way We Make Things has played an influential role in the sustainability movement. McDonough partnered with Stanford University Libraries in 2012, on a living archive of his work and communications. At the 2014 World Economic Forum (WEF) in Switzerland, McDonough participated as a leader, presenter and convener, and made sustainability a primary focus, for the first time at the WEF. In 1999 Time magazine recognized him as a "Hero for the Planet," stating "his utopianism is grounded in a unified philosophy that in demonstrable and practical ways is changing the design of the world." In 1996, he received the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development, the highest environmental honor given by United States. Additionally, in 2009, McDonough led the founding of the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute to donate the Cradle to Cradle Certified Products Program to the public. In 2014, William McDonough was appointed by the World Economic Forum to Chair of the Meta-Council on the Circular Economy.
