Biomimicry Collection

Biomimicry Media Collection

With climate disruption upon us, transforming our food and water systems is paramount. Success requires more than just technical solutions. It necessitates a shift in our worldview, and a change of heart. Game-changing innovations in design and technology to address this crisis are surfacing constantly, as well as social innovations.

At the forefront is biomimicry, the art and science of mimicking nature’s design genius. Biomimicry celebrates our kinship with life, unearthing untold treasures from nature’s playbook that we can emulate for our technological and industrial recipe book. Explore our media collection of fascinating examples from leaders in the field.

  • Biomimicry Training Video

    Get a sneak peek into a professional development training for educators hosted by the Biomimicry Institute, Bioneers, and Ten Strands.

FEATURED VIDEO

Biomimicry with Janine Benyus

Nature is a master designer. The resiliency of life is embodied in its adaptation to the ecosystems found in each corner of the Earth. Rather than setting ourselves apart from the genius that surrounds us, humanity can design a harmonious destiny with the same biological patterns that construct our world.

Videos
 
Biomimicry author and visionary Janine Benyus explores how the “democratization of invention” is growing more biomimetic – as teams turn to nature together, in massive parallel, to discover a multitude of wild ideas that work together as a system.

Biomimicry as a Cooperative Inquiry | Janine Benyus

 
Nature has the ability to self-organize and self-repair. By incorporating ecological design in technology, we can manufacture a more sustainable future.

Ecological Design | John Todd

 
Green chemist John Warner has found that grey hairs can restore themselves to their natural color, and all it takes is a little beetle chemistry.

Green Chemistry with John Warner

 
Co-founder with Janine Benyus of the Biomimicry Guild and Biomimicry Institute, Dayna Baumeister provides an eagle’s-eye view of biomimicry breakthroughs using ecological design and nature-inspired technologies that emulate nature’s profound design sophistication.

Biomimicry: Life’s Operating Manual | Dayna Baumeister

 
The President-CEO of PAX Scientific reveals how scientists and designers are taking cues from nature to find breakthrough solutions. Take sunscreen modeled on hippo sweat. How might we borrow the recipe? It’s time for a fresh look at technology and design, with nature as our mentor.

The Nature of Innovation | Jay Harman

 
As L.A.’s eco-governance model starts to spread globally, Andy Lipkis reports from the frontlines of the City of Angels and Australia, which has engaged the entire citizenry as watershed managers.

Navigating Adaptation and Resilience | Andy Lipkis

 
In this lyrical exploration, John Todd shares the essential principles of ecological design and reveals how mimicking nature’s forms and processes can lead to breakthrough design.

The Ecological Design Revolution | John Todd

 
It’s time to create the green molecular building blocks that make green technology truly clean, from raw materials and production to social justice. World-renowned green chemist John Warner illustrates how we can create a new generation of biomimetic and green molecular building blocks to help us reach the “world we want.”

Intellectual Ecology, Green Chemistry | John Warner

 
The annual Biomimicry Global Design Challenge was founded by the Ray C. Anderson Foundation and the Biomimicry Institute to stimulate biomimetic solutions to humanity’s greatest challenges.

Third Annual Biomimicry Global Design Challenge Ray of Hope Prize

Podcasts
 
This one-hour special from Bioneers Radio explores the time-tested processes, relationships and recipes that have allowed life to flourish during 3.8 billion years of evolution.

Natural Magic: The Earth Hospitality Enterprise – One Hour Special

 
Chemist Paul Anastas is re-inventing a “Green Chemistry” that transforms how we make things. Imitating nature is paying off for the economy, people and the planet.

Nature Heals All Wounds: Spirals, Seashells and Molecular Architecture | Jay Harman & Paul Anastas

 
Two winners of the 2012 Buckminster Fuller Challenge Award demonstrate breakthrough systems designs that can transform major industries, create a healthy sustainable environment and make life beautiful and fun.

Disruptive Design: What Good Looks Like | Cheryl Dahle and Jason F. McLennan

 
Biomimicry is decoding astonishing treasures from nature’s recipe book that we can mimic for our technological and industrial practices. It’s also changing how we think: a crash course in environmental education from nature’s viewpoint.

Millions of Elders: Biomimicry and How Nature Would Do It | Dr. Dayna Baumeister

 
Biomimics Janine Benyus, Stephan Dewar, David Orr and Jay Harman offer a smorgasbord of startling solutions to climate chaos based on nature’s genius.

True Biotechnologies: Nature’s Best Climate Change Solutions

 
The genius of nature’s design, recipes and principles is serving as the inspiration for redesigning human civilization. This Biomimicry revolution is spawning a next industrial revolution. Janine Benyus and Jay Harman illuminate the forefront of nature-inspired design, including human organization and the power of networks.

Sharkskin, Hippo Sweat and the Wood-Wide Web: From Flat Earth to Whole Earth Thinking

 
A living building is like a flower, planted and rooted to its place. It collects its energy from the sun. It harvests its water from the rain. This building does not pollute. It engages actively with the environmental around it. This is nature’s blueprint for building a better world, says visionary architect Jason McLennan.

Planting Buildings: The Living Building Challenge | Jason McLennan

 
Nontoxic hair color from the recipes of beetles, and a potential Alzheimer’s cure derived from applying nature’s operating instructions. The world-renowned “co-father of green chemistry,” John Warner shows how we can follow nature’s lead to create good chemistry with nature and our own health.

Good Chemistry: Survival of the Most Compatible | John Warner

 
Bathing suits modeled on sharkskin that win the Olympics. Low-energy display screen based on peacock feathers. Nature has done everything human societies want to do technologically – without mining the past or mortgaging the future. Featuring: Janine Benyus, Stephen Dewar, Jason McLennan and Bob Hawkins.

What’s Good for Life Wins: The Biomimicry Scientific Revolution

Articles
 
Using Biomimicry as a lens, Dr. Crystal Kolden— a “Pyrogeographer” whose work revolves around humanity’s relationship with fire —and her colleagues have gained an intimate understanding of the solutions needed to adapt to a rapidly warming world.

Living With Fire: Dr. Crystal Kolden on Fire Resilience, Biomimicry and TEK

 
In this essay about Biomimicry, Janine Benyus discusses why humans should learn from nature rather than simply about nature.

Biomimicry: What Would Nature Do Here?

 
Mark Shepard is the CEO of Forest Agriculture Enterprises who has developed a 106-acre polyculture farm by combining Permaculture, agroforestry and biomimicry principles. He is the author of Restoration Agriculture, a book that shares his experience on how to create an agricultural system that imitates the form and function of nature.

Mimicking Nature, Managing for Carbon | Mark Shepard

 
Six international teams from the Biomimicry Launchpad showcase their climate change solutions, all based on lessons learned from living systems.

Planting Trees, Capturing Carbon, Cleaning the Air

 
As brainstormers and problem-solvers, humans have become quite adept at creating their own solutions to a multitude of problems. But what if the very best solutions could be found by observing nature? Katherine Collins discusses how biomimicry can make the world of investing more sustainable and resilient.

Saved by the Bee: Biomimicry and the Nature of Investing

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