BioInspired! So What? Now What!

2018/02/08 ​attached introduction and table of contents

Congratulations to Taryn Mead on publishing Bioinspiration In Business And Management: Innovating For Sustainability in December, 2017.  From the publisher:

Many organizations have found themselves well advanced in their sustainability strategies and reaching the limits of progress made through eco-efficiency measures and regulatory compliance. Looking for novel approaches and solutions, many managers are turning to bioinspiration and related fields such as biomimicry, nature-inspired innovation, circular economy, and cradle to cradle, as tools for sustainability-oriented innovation. This innovation paradigm has been gaining popularity across disciplines in recent decades as the world grapples with the challenge of sustainable development.

This book offers a succinct guide for managers and sustainability professionals who are interested in exploring various aspects of business inspired by nature. With applicability ranging from technological, organizational, and system-building innovations, there is a broad realm of possibilities that suit a manager’s scope of ifluence regardless of their position within the organization. This book aims to exhibit the applications of business inspired by nature that extend beyond the boundaries of the organization and encourage open innovation with novel partners in unlikely scenarios, with all partners aligned by the principles of natural systems.

Public attachment: 

Bioinspiration in Business and Management-intro.pdf

This white paper provides an overview of "bioinspired innovation" (which includes both bioutilization and biomimicry) and explores how it can deliver disruptive innovation that "can increase revenues, reduce costs, and meet global needs" and "also increase their environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) rating".  It includes an infographic organizing an extensive list of innovations by cross-sector topics (carbon, water, materials, energy conversion & storage, optics & photonics, thermo-regulation, fluid dynamics, data & computing, systems), market readiness and affected industries.  The online version is interactive and displays details of each innovation. 

After a report on the potential economic impact of bioinspired innovation prepared by the Fermanian Business & Economic Institute, the white paper explores selected innovations in each of the cross-sector topics mentioned above (online version links back to the infographic) and an extensive list of references.  The PDF includes a table that summarizes the information displayed within the interactive online infographic. 

In addition to exploring the wide range existing breakthrough biologically-inspired products, it also describes the vast, largely untapped market potential of a bioinspired approach to innovation.