Biomimicry 101

This post is coming late due to bad Internet and we were only able to upload one photo.

Definition: biomimicry is an approach to innovation that seeks sustainable solutions to human challenges by emulating nature's time-tested patterns and strategies.

We met Claire today. Claire had always wanted to become a chef when she grew up but her parents would not allow this, so she became a chemical engineer instead. She was still mixing ingredients, only they were no longer edible. She described her time working in this field as touring the sewers of humanity. How could she take a natural product, extract it, alter it and make it into something for mass consumption and production. Of chemical engineers and most humans Claire fondly says that "we're like toddlers playing with matches in an oil field".

Left feeling empty by her work she quit to go WWOOFing (willing workers on organic farms) in California. This experience reconnected her to nature and she began looking at things differently.

Last night we met Leeko. We agreed she is one of the most beautiful woman we had ever seen. Leeko was raised in a small African village where she spent her evenings listening to her elders tell her stories about the beauty and mysticism of our ancient world. Leeko went on to start a successful program that helps farmers in small villages get consistent and fair prices for the food they grow. She has changed the life of many people. Read this article about Leeko: http://200ysa.mg.co.za/leeko-mokoena/

Claire compared humans to Leeko to help us understand biomimicry better. She says that we are the children sitting around the fire with our elder mother earth and we need to listen to her if we want to make positive changes like Leeko.

We talked about shifting our view from what can we learn about nature, to what can we learn from nature. We looked at one leaf on tree as a solar panel. This one small leaf can take sunlight and turn it into energy, it contributes to the hydrological cycle, it creates an ecosystem in which animals can breathe and flourish and when it falls to the ground it decomposes back into the earth. Nature is our most advanced technology with over 3.8 billion years of knowledge.

What can we learn from nature that will help us solve many of the problems we face today?

You should probably go learn more about biomimicry, many of us were so inspired by Claire's talk we were asking how we could drop everything and go back to school to study this fascinating approach to innovation.

WWW.biomimicry.org

WWW.biomimicry.net

Www.Imaginature.co