I think the concept of biomimicry (essentially, basing product and service design on the architecture of what works well in nature) is genius. It is probably what we did at the very first and then in the rush of the industrial era didn't until recently think to utilize again until we called it a fancy name. Last year, an article came out outlining the 14 best inventions using biomimicry. My favourites are the artificial leaf (great simple vision), the robot spider that'll find you in a disaster (cleverness), and the robot bird (awe-factor at how close a machine can look to a live animal).
Janine Benyus, from the Biomimicry Institute in the US, gave two TED talks in 2009 (see below). At the Institute they promote the study and imitation of nature's designs, and bring together scientists, engineers, architects and innovators who can use the information to create more sustainable technologies. They call it Ask Nature. I wonder what is happening in this space here in New Zealand?
I'm curious how the ecological performance standards that are being developed by the Biomimicry Guild are coming along, and how these might be used by governance along with GPI's to track our performance.
I'm curious how the ecological performance standards that are being developed by the Biomimicry Guild are coming along, and how these might be used by governance along with GPI's to track our performance.
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