What is biomimicry?
For all the challenges we face, nature has solutions
Biomimicry is a practice that learns from and mimics the strategies used by living organisms to solve challenges comparable to the ones we face as individuals and societies. The benefit is that nature presents us with many strategies far better at working harmoniously with the rest of nature than many human developed strategies have been. The goal then is to create products, processes, and systems that solve our greatest design challenges sustainably and in harmony with all life on earth.
The 3 essential elements of biomimicry
When translating nature’s strategies into design, the practice of biomimicry involves three essential elements.
EMULATION: The attentive practice of learning from nature’s forms and processes to guide human innovation and to create more regenerative design solutions.
ETHICAL FRAMEWORK: A commitment to apply lessons learned from life’s systems in a manner that creates conditions conducive to life, and a recognition that we have a responsibility to conserve and protect that which we are learning from.
(RE)CONNECTION: Acknowledgement that humans and our activities are not separate from nature, but are a part of nature, affecting and affected by all other organisms within Earth’s interconnected systems. As a practice, reconnecting with nature encourages us to observe and spend time in nature to better understand how life works so that we may more effectively appreciate and emulate biological strategies in our designs.