BioInspired! So What? Now What!

For those of you who have not yet ordered, we are thrilled to announce that the Biomimicry Resource Handbook: A Seed Bank of Knowledge and Best Practices (2013) is now being made available to the general public for purchase.

Originally created as the reference textbook for our Biomimicry Professional and Specialist Certificate Programs, this comprehensive and truly definitive Handbook on biomimicry is now available for both students and professionals alike.

Our vision is to create a resilient, adaptive, and thriving economy inspired by nature’s best strategies and based on nature's best practices. Biomimicry means applying nature's wisdom as a guiding framework for a cultural shift towards sustainable living. We go beyond the mere opportunity for novel solutions. We are committed to a holistic ideation & development process that challenges and disrupts conservative approaches and successfully innovates and transforms our society sustainably.

Biomimicry Ontario is:

A platform for anyone engaged in, or interested in sustainable, critical action inspired by nature.

This platform can be used to:

• share ideas and inspiration
• call for support and resources
• educate and inform
• create an engaged community through biomimicry

The Biomimicry Youth Challenge (BYC) is an international design challenge for children from Pre-Kindergarten through High School. The Challenge asks educators to help children learn from nature how to create more sustainable designs.

The goal of the Biomimicry Youth Challenge is to provide a fun and transformative opportunity for teachers, parents/guardians, and students to learn about biomimicry. With that knowledge, they can explore the practice of biomimicry as both a design tool and a new way of viewing the natural and human-built worlds. The challenge is also designed to reconnect young people with the natural world around them.

Great Lakes Biomimicry was founded in July, 2010 and has developed a wide range of service partners in support of its mission to "use its creatively assembled and diverse group of partners to develop a place-based, living, learning laboratory system and culture, based on biomimicry, which is unique not only in the United States, but worldwide."  Five working groups have been formed:

• Education Group
• Economic Development Group
• Water Group
• Sustainability Group
• SOAR

Imagine a city mentored by nature's genius. We are a regional network of individuals from all industries, sectors and backgrounds, dedicated to creating and fostering a community of nature-inspired practice in the NY Metro region.

Mission

Creating and fostering a community of nature-inspired practice in the NY Metro region.

Description

Nature's 3.8 billion years of wisdom is the greatest "natural resource" we have to tap into. Biomimicry NYC is a consortium of individuals from all backgrounds, industries and sectors working to connect those inspired by nature's principles, techniques and strategies, and to catalyze a community of practice in the NY Metropolitan region.

In addition to the Facebook page containing a large amount of material, there is also a webpage at http://biomimicrynyc.com/ that lists a wide range of Resources and local Events.

This article provides an overview of biomimicry with numerous examples:

• Mark Miles, the Morpho butterfly and Qualcomm's Mirasol display
• Georges de Mestral, burrs and Velcro
• Claus Mattheck, growth of load-bearing structures and the SKO (soft kill option) design method
• Jay Harman, spirals in nature and the PAX Streamlining Principle
• the camel's nose and a saltwater-irrigated greenhouse in Qatar
• the banyan tree/harvester ants and water management in Lavasa
• Jaime Grunlan, lobster/shrimp shells and a fire-proofing polymer coating
• Shanghai Jiao Tong University, birdwing butterflies and more efficient solar technologies
• Simon Fraser University, butterfly scales and an anti-counterfeiting stamp (NOtES)
• Omni-ID, butterfly scales and more reliable RFID tags
• the Morpho butterfly and Morphotex fabrics

Thanks to Cindy Gilbert for the pointer!

As a regional hub of The Biomimicry Group, biomimicrySA promotes the study and imitation of nature’s remarkably efficient designs, bringing together scientists, engineers, architects and innovators who can use those models to create sustainable technologies. The Biomimicry Group’s process of consulting life’s genius utilises a clear, proven design methodology, complete with effective implementation tools, developed over a decade of work with companies, entrepreneurial organisations, universities, governments, and non-profits. biomimicrySA inspires, educates, enables & connects biomimics in South Africa through:

• Presentations
• Education/Training
• Networking
• InnovationConsulting
• Research

Based in one of the most innovative ecosystems on earth, the Bay Area Biomimicry Network is an active consortium of leaders in design, engineering, architecture, life science, communications, business, academia, and the public sector. We are evolving in collaboration with Biomimicry 3.8, The Biomimicry Institute, and a growing web of regional biomimicry networks.

Our Mission

Through collaboration, knowledge sharing, and joint initiatives, the network brings the technology of biology to life in the San Francisco region by studying and applying nature’s adaptive and resilient strategies to solve modern design challenges.

Following is an excerpt from the introduction to the Biomimicry Resource Handbook, which is the definitive textbook for our professional training programs (see additional photos below):

This Biomimicry Resource Handbook: a seed bank of knowledge and best practices contains the most current thinking about and tools for naturalizing biomimicry into the culture as understood and practiced by our organization, Biomimicry 3.8.

We call it seed bank because a seed bank collects, stores, and preserves critical genetic resources so that they may help replenish destroyed reserves elsewhere, conserve biodiversity, and create resilience in the face of catastrophic events. In a similar way, the Biomimicry Resource Handbook is a repository for the concepts and applications of biomimicry, so that as the field evolves and the demands of the world necessitate, anyone can draw upon these ideas to help society follow nature’s genius, conserve biodiversity through bio-inspired innovation, and foster resilience by creating nature-mentored regenerative systems.

The handbook is intended to be a practical tool you can draw upon whenever you have a design challenge calling out for an innovative and sustainable solution. The handbook is designed for professionals who are interested in incorporating the practice of biomimicry into their work. It’s directly applicable to designers, biologists, engineers, entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs, but will no doubt prove valuable to students, educators, and a wide variety of other disciplines.