BioInspired! So What? Now What!

Guardian Sustainable Business is hosting an online discussion with Nigel Stansfield, Denise DeLuca, Giles Hutchins and Michael Pawlyn "to explore the realms of biomimicry and what this relolutionary science could mean for business in future".  It appears that the panelists will respond to comments posted to the forum (see link above).  If you wish to participate, you need to register first.  When you sign in at the bottom of the forum, you will be asked for a username, the visible nickname that will be associated with your comments.  It took several attempts before I was successful.

To explore the principles of biomimicry, how they can be applied to sustainable business and many more questions, join our expert panel on Wednesday 5 October, 2-4pm (BST). Please feel free to post your thoughts and questions beforehand in the comments section below. To do this you will need to sign up here.

Our panel:

Nigel Stansfield is senior vice president of product and innovation at InterfaceFLOR, a worldwide leader in the design and production of carpet tiles. The company is widely recognised as an environmental pioneer for its aim to eliminate its environmental impacts by 2020, known as Mission Zero. Nigel has over 25 years' experience as a textile technologist and is part of InterfaceFLOR's European Executive Team. Nigel regularly speaks on Biomimicry and how InterfaceFLOR uses it to influence innovative and sustainable product design.

Denise DeLuca is project lead for Swedish Biomimetics 3000 and was previously the outreach director for The Biomimicry Institute. Denise has presented numerous lectures and workshops, helped expand the tools and concepts of biomimicry, and worked to integrate biomimicry into university-level education. She is also a co-founder of BCI: Biomimicry for Creative Innovation, which focuses on ecological thinking for the radical transformation of businesses and organisations.

Giles Hutchins is global director of Sustainability Solutions at Atos. His goal is to bring sustainability into the mainstream of all business behaviour and to develop focused and practicable sustainability initiatives for Atos and its clients. With over a decade of business and IT transformation experience, Giles is particularly interested in how business models can mimic those found in nature to create resilience under volatile conditions.

Michael Pawlyn established Exploration in 2007 to focus exclusively on environmentally sustainable projects that take their inspiration from nature. Prior to setting up the company he worked with Grimshaw for ten years and was central to the team that radically re- invented horticultural architecture for the Eden Project. In September 2003, Michael joined an intensive course in nature-inspired design at Schumacher College, run by Amory Lovins and Janine Benyus. He has lectured widely on the subject of sustainable design in the UK and abroad and in May 2005 delivered a talk at the Royal Society of Arts with Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface. Michael's book, 'Biomimicry in Architecture' has recently been released.

 Thanks to Denise DeLuca for the pointer!