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
Biomimicry 3.8 welcomed 18 new members to its biomimicry community this week, an elite multi-disciplinary group that makes up the 2016-2018 Biomimicry Professional (BPRo) certificate program cohort. In a highly competitive process, “each member was chosen because of their passion, qualifications, and dedication to biomimicry,” said Dr. Dayna Baumeister, program founder and lead instructor. “This 2016-2018 cohort undoubtedly represents another stellar group that is ready to learn what it means to lead in a world mentored by life’s genius.” Click here to view the full list of 2016 cohort members The globally renowned Biomimicry Professional (BPro) certificate program is a part-time, two-year course that integrates an accredited Master’s of Science in Biomimicry degree through Arizona State University with an in-person immersion program run by Biomimicry 3.8. The core purpose of the program is to train and mobilize an international, networked community of professional biomimics who become the leaders in this burgeoning practice. The program was created and is led by Baumeister, Biomimicry...Read More >
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Posted in Biomimicry in Action, Newsworthy on March 29, 2016 by jenna
How can biomimicry help us create thriving, healthy communities that function in harmony with their ecosystems? It’s a question we ask ourselves often—and one we’ve set out to answer for clients who want their built environment projects to be inspired by nature’s genius. Built environment is a broad concept. It encompasses all human-made spaces that people use every day. That’s why it’s exciting to think about how biomimicry could help those spaces function more like nature does—in a more life-friendly way. We’re highlighting several work examples that show how we incorporated lessons from nature into built environment projects on our new Built Environment Services page. The work examples unpack the challenge for each project, then define the process and outcome of our biomimetic solutions. For example, take a look at the work we did for the Spring Mountain Visitors Gateway in Nevada: Learn more about biomimicry and Biomimicry 3.8, connect with us on Facebook, Twitter (follow @Biomimicry38) and LinkedIn.
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Posted in Biomimicry in Action on March 25, 2016 by jenna
During our Happy Birthday Life celebration last month, we told you about how Life first appeared on Earth in the form of a single-celled organism on February 25. That’s according to Earth’s calendar year calculations, which compress the age of Earth (4.5 billion years) into one calendar year. According to that calendar where 144 years equals one second, if Earth was “born” on January 1, then February 25 would be the day life emerged. About 23 days (or about 285 million years) after the first single-celled organism appeared, photosynthesis evolved. That makes March 21 a major milestone on Earth’s calendar: The evolution of a new kind of energy that is produced, captured, and stored during a process that fits into a renewable system that has lasted for billions of years. Photosynthesis is the primary form of energy production that sustains biological life on our planet. By capturing sunlight energy in molecules, plants and algae have become a foundation that supports...Read More >
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Posted in Inspired by Nature on March 18, 2016 by jenna
The next frontier is to capture and use the excess carbon that already exists in our economy and in our atmosphere.
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Posted in Innovation Insights, Newsworthy on by jenna
Enter biomimicry, and a set of solutions that looks to nature for strategies to manage carbon.
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Posted in Innovation Insights, Newsworthy on by jenna
We are always excited to share inspirations from nature—biomimicry, after all, is innovation inspired by nature. We’re extra excited to share this new video that takes you to South Africa and offers a glimpse into our biomimicry immersion workshop experience. Shot last November during our Discovering Nature’s Genius workshop in Leshiba Wilderness, Limpopo province, South Africa, the video is a beautiful, exciting snapshot of the experiences people have while exploring biomimicry in the field. Biomimicry 3.8 has been putting on workshops since 2002. We’re planning to host several more in 2016. Feeling inspired? Our next workshop will take participants to the Netherlands for the first European-based Biomimicry Thinking for Social Innovation workshop. The workshop will explore the fusion between biomimicry and social innovation—inviting participants to re-imagine organizational leadership, strategy, planning, and operations with inspiration from healthy and evolving ecosystems. The workshop will be taught by our own Dayna Baumeister and Toby Herzlich, founder of Biomimicry for Social Innovation. The six-day experience...Read More >
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Posted in Biomimicry in Action, Inspired by Nature on March 10, 2016 by jenna