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
We’ll be among the estimated 1 billion people celebrating Earth Day 2016 this year, not only because the events help inspire people to protect the Earth for future generations, but also because it’s a perfect time to remind ourselves that we ARE nature. Our co-founder Janine Benyus explains: Biomimicry works precisely because there is no difference between what we do and what other organisms do—the boundary between us and the rest of the world is a false one that dissolves when you consider what is really important, what makes life worth living. We are in a long line of organisms that have sprung from this earth, each trying to figure out how to stay here, how to take care of the place that will care for our offspring. This year, Earth Day events will focus on the urgent need to plant new trees and forests worldwide. Also this year, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has invited every world leader to...Read More >
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Posted in Inspired by Nature on April 20, 2016 by jenna
We’re often asked “What do people do with their biomimicry certifications?” In this case the answer is simple: Do good. Certified Biomimicry Specialist Adib Dada was named to Good Magazine’s 2016 Good 100 list for his Bring Beirut River Back To Life work. The list honors “remarkable individuals tackling pressing global issues today.” Dada is the founder and lead architect at theOtherDada. He is a 2012 graduate of the BSpec program. Here’s what Good Magazine had to say about Adib’s work: “The Beirut River is more sludgy sewer than river, complete with rumors of a resident crocodile lurking in the muck. Adib Dada thinks he can clean it up. Using biomimicry techniques developed at theOtherDada, his architecture and design practice, Dada is attempting to rehabilitate the river and reintegrate it into Beirut’s natural ecosystem. He’s also rebuilding the city’s infrastructure around a more symbiotic relationship between nature and the built environment. The first stage, Beirut River 2.0, which addresses infrastructural decay and contamination in the most polluted neighborhoods, is currently under way.” According to its website, the project aims include bringing...Read More >
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Posted in Biomimicry in Action on April 13, 2016 by jenna
The elegance of life’s technologies—and biomimicry’s growing influence in bringing those technologies to the design world—is on full display in this wonderful new video featuring our co-founder Janine Benyus. “Design In Nature,” was shot near our headquarters in Missoula, Montana, on what turned out to be a gorgeous early spring day, and was produced by Bloomberg Businessweek Design for the publication’s one-day design conference that took place in San Francisco April 11. This design-focused video is a 4-minute introduction to Janine’s keynote at the event, where she’ll expand on the role of biomimicry in the design world. The video offers not only a glimpse of biomimicry’s design influence, but also of Janine’s backyard laboratory—including an evergreen tree that, or as Janine points out “an amazing assemblage of technologies.” Janine was joined by 24 other global design leaders, ranging from a social innovation startup leaders to costume designers. The video is part of a Bloomberg Businessweek package on biomimicry (including this...Read More >
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Posted in Biomimicry in Action, Innovation Insights, Inspired by Nature on April 8, 2016 by jenna