The International Living Future Institute’s annual Living Product Expo, set for September 13-15 in Pittsburgh, is focused on crafting materials of the future. What does a material of the future look like? It’s a material that functions as “elegantly and efficiently as anything found in the natural world.” It’s an important and exciting concept; one that relies on biomimicry as a tool to achieve. The Expo provides a place to share find inspiration for this kind of innovation, and turn that inspiration into action. The Expo provides an opportunity for participants to share and discover disruptive new ideas and technologies that are reshaping the materials landscape, accelerating the pace of innovation and making Living Products possible today. The Expo will also feature a host of keynote speakers, a set of educational tracks and a trade show exhibit hall. You can 10% off the cost of a conference pass with the code BIOMIMICRY10. Register for the 2016 Living Product Expo here Also...Read More >
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Posted in Featured, Innovation Insights on August 12, 2016 by jenna
Scrolling through the Synapse by Biomimicry 3.8 newsfeed raises more than a few interesting questions: Can sunflowers save the bees? How does slime mold “decide” how to move toward food? What if we designed trusses like dragonfly wings? What kind of engineering tips can we get from a killer trapdoor plant? That’s one of the great things about biomimicry; you never know what kind of thought-provoking design inspiration might be found when you look to nature for answers. We recently hit a milestone on our new Synapse by Biomimicry 3.8 newsfeed when we published our 100th post, each of which includes expert commentary on recent biomimicry news articles, papers, and innovations. The newsfeed provides a daily does of biomimicry news in the form of commentary from our experts, including Janine Benyus and Dr. Dayna Baumeister. Reaching the 100-post mark means we’ve compiled a tidy, scrollable list of 100 nature-inspired ways to spark new ideas on how to use nature’s genius to...Read More >
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Posted in Featured, Innovation Insights on June 23, 2016 by jenna
We’re excited to be helping the International Living Future Institute celebrate a decade of innovation this year during the organization’s Living Future unConference 2016, May 11-13. The celebration will converge on Seattle with the aim of continuing the progress of inspiring green building movement innovators to find solutions to the some of the most pressing global issues. For our part, we’ll be providing a deep dive into exploring how using nature as model, mentor, and measure can help achieve a Living Future. A set of our team and network members will lead a full biomimicry-inspired track at unConference, helping connect participants with the tools and innovation opportunities biomimicry can bring to the built environment and to helping projects achieve Living Product Challenge, Living Building Challenge, and Living Community Challenge imperatives. Here’s a quick glimpse of several of our sessions, beginning Thursday, May 12: Biomimicry + Living Future: Integrating Innovations Inspired by Nature to Achieve a Living Future Biomimicry Thinking for...Read More >
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Posted in Biomimicry in Action, Featured on April 28, 2016 by jenna
Biomimicry 3.8 co-founder Janine Benyus will join Project Drawdown founder Paul Hawken in conversation this week at Buildwell 2016, a two-day conference for people who are inventing a healthy, low-carbon 21st century architecture. Benyus will speak Feb. 10, highlighting the role nature’s genius can play in creating building materials and built environments that not only help eliminate and draw down carbon emissions, but provide net-positive impact. “In the past, we’ve asked (buildings) to reduce energy use, reduce how many toxins are used in building materials—to reduce impacts,” Benyus said. “In the future, I think we’ll be asking them to filter their own water, to purify air around them, and send the air downwind cleaner than it came. I think we’ll be asking them to squeeze carbon into their site using the building materials themselves.” This is something nature does every day. Native landscapes provide ecosystem services—like trapping carbon, purifying water and supporting biodiversity—that clean the air, replenish water supplies, and...Read More >
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Posted in Biomimicry in Action, Featured on February 8, 2016 by jenna
Bone Structure image via Shutterstock The Airbus Group is taking innovation inspired by nature to the air by using 3D printing to help build a stronger, lighter-weight galley partition that mimics cells structure and bone growth. The design literally lightens each airplane’s load, allowing it to do things like save a projected 465,000 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. According to Airbus, “this makes the bionic partition a groundbreaking development for a sector in which less weight equals less fuel consumption” (read more about how Airbus learns from nature here.) In this edition of Innovation Inspirations, we’ll take a look at the biology of bones, and explore what else nature can teach us about creating life-friendly materials that are lightweight and super-strong. Why bones should be industrial designers’ best friend: In nature, bones grow in response to mechanical stress and loading. Bones need to be strong, yet lightweight. Bone is made of a composite material that is about 95%...Read More >
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Posted in Featured, Innovation Insights on February 2, 2016 by jenna
GreenBiz16 will gather a set of visionaries, gurus, and business leaders near Phoenix, Arizona, February 23-25, to define the greatest trends, challenges and opportunities in sustainable business today. The annual conference is a forum to discuss big (sustainability) ideas in the world of big business. But what can nature teach us about running a thriving, sustainability-driven business? Thanks to 3.8 billion years of evolutionary R&D, nature has much to teach us about sustainable business practices. We’re excited to bring biomimicry to GreenBiz once again, and are cooking up several opportunities for attendees to learn more about the practice’s application to sustainable business and leadership practices. First off, Biomimicry 3.8 co-founder Dayna Baumeister will present “Systems Thinking: Nature inspired business lessons” on the event’s main stage at 10:55 a.m. on Thursday, February, 25, where she’ll highlight nature’s key insights that can increase a company’s resilience, drive innovation, and help regenerate our culture, economy, and planet. Dayna will also host a Greenbiz...Read More >
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Posted in Biomimicry in Action, Featured on January 28, 2016 by jenna
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, in partnership with World Economic Forum and McKinsey and Company, released a new report today that defines a vision of a world where plastics never become waste. “The New Plastic Economy” is a visionary report that defines a plan to empower plastic in a sense, by using circular economy principles. Applying circular economy principles to global plastic packaging flows could transform the plastics economy and drastically reduce negative externalities such as leakage into oceans, according to a press release about the report. We are proud affiliates for the foundation’s CE100 program, and are excited to support such a wonderful vision that finds new ways to envision plastic packaging to help protect what nature’s genius has created on Earth. After all, nature is the original circular economy. Biomimicry-based innovations eliminate waste by designing for optimal use of resources and eliminating redundancies. Download the full New Plastic Economy report Why focus on plastic? The report lays out a set of astounding...Read More >
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Posted in Featured, Newsworthy on January 19, 2016 by jenna
Nature enthusiasts are getting together in a big way this weekend to take a walk. More specifically, a BioBlitz nature walk. The Bioblitz walk across the Americas is January 16-17. It’s a pretty simple premise: Take a walk with your friends and family and share your findings with the world using the iNaturalist app on your smart phone. It’s the perfect excuse to let technology help us pay attention to nature. Although this weekend’s event can take place anywhere—from your backyard to your local park—there are a couple of biomimicry network groups hosting Bioblitzes. In the Arizona area? Try this Bioblitz in the Sonoran Desert. In the California area? The Coastal Redwoods Biomimicry Group is also hosting an event. Both events are free. Want to host your own Bioblitz? Here’s all the links you need to get started: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=inaturalist http://www.inaturalist.org/pages/bioblitz+guide http://nerdsfornature.org/bioblitz/ http://www.coastalredwoodbiomimicry.com/how-to-bioblitz.html Now, get out there and Bioblitz!
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Posted in Featured, Inspired by Nature on January 12, 2016 by jenna