AskNature Learning

From buildings that regulate their own temperature to cities designed like thriving ecosystems, nature offers proven strategies for creating places that reconnect people and nature. This course explores how the built environment can respond to the interconnected challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss by learning directly from nature’s genius.

Participants will discover the hidden dependencies between our cities, the materials they are made from, and natural systems. You’ll realize how the family of “bio” approaches— biophilic, bio-based and biomimicry—can work together to create regenerative, resilient solutions. Through real-world examples, you’ll explore how to translate nature’s genius into scalable innovations, helping to shape a future where our buildings, cities and infrastructure become connected to nature. This course is an invitation to step outside the limits of conventional design and listen to nature’s wisdom, translating its time-tested patterns into buildings, cities, and infrastructure that regenerate life. Learn from the experts with live sessions being led by Amanda Sturgeon, FAIA and CEO of The Biomimicry Institute with guest speakers including Janine Benyus. Participants are able to self-report this course for AIA LU Elective continuing education credit.

• Anyone in the fashion and textile industry ready to make a change
• Anyone in the architecture, built environment sector interested in nature based solutions
• Sustainability consultants and technical advisors
• Designers, architects engineers, material manufacturers, planners, policy makers
• Young professionals/university students
• No prior experience in biomimicry required, just your eagerness to realize a Nature Positive Built environment sector.

• Participants will develop a greater understanding of what it means to transform waste into a resource Participants will learn where the dependencies on nature lie in the built environment sector and why it is critical to address them.
• Participants will understand how the sector can foster solutions towards the polycrisis of climate change and biodiversity loss.
• Participants will learn how to turn to nature for design solutions, and the different scales where learning from nature can change the built environment sector.
• Participants will understand how the range of ‘bio’ disciplines from bio-based, biophilic, biomorphic etc. are part of a complimentary set of approaches to achieve a Nature Positive and Regenerative built environment.

Module 1: Why is Nature important in the built environment sector?

Module 2: How can learning from nature influence built environment innovation?

Module 3: How do Nature Positive solutions scale?

Module 4: Ideation and application (Tools, principles, frameworks)

Nature holds solutions to many of our greatest challenges, but moving from inspiration to action requires a shift in perspective. This course provides a hands-on approach to applying biomimicry in both personal and professional contexts, helping you see problems differently and uncover nature-inspired strategies for solving them.

Through engaging discussions and real-world examples, you’ll develop the skill of thinking through challenges as nature does, gain practical tools to turn inspired ideas into concrete plans, and leave with actionable steps you can put into practice right away. Along the way, you’ll explore the fundamentals of biology and ecology, examine existing biomimetic innovations, and learn how to see nature not just as something to admire, but as a guide for innovation.

This course is hosted by Bioneers and runs from October 9-30, 2025, with live classes held Thursdays from 10 – 11:30 a.m. (PT) via Zoom. Recordings will be available for registrants who are unable to attend a session.

This course is designed for anyone curious about learning from nature to improve the way they work, create, and problem-solve. It is particularly relevant for:

• Designers, engineers, and architects
• Environmentalists and sustainability professionals
• Educators and science communicators
• Creatives and innovators
• Anyone interested in integrating biomimicry into daily life
• No prior experience in biomimicry or science is required—just a curiosity for nature’s wisdom.

• How to observe and learn from nature to find solutions to real-world problems
• The fundamentals of biomimicry, biology, and ecology, and how they relate to innovation
• Techniques for applying biomimicry to both professional and personal challenges
• Existing biomimetic solutions and how to draw inspiration from them.
• How to take an inspired idea and develop it into a concrete plan

Module 1: Learning by Doing

Module 2: Rediscovering Nature With Us

Module 3: Reconnecting with nature Around Us

Module 4: Seeing Through an “AskNature Lens”

The Nature of Innovation is a cohort-based course designed for scientists, engineers, designers, biomimicry enthusiasts, and impact-driven entrepreneurs eager to transform their nature-inspired ideas into real-world solutions. Co-created by AskNature Learning and the Ray of Hope Accelerator, this program offers practical tools, startup case studies, and expert guidance to help participants navigate the journey from research or concept to market. It’s tailored for those with existing ideas or research insights, focusing on applying biomimicry principles, business modeling, and impact measurement—without covering ideation or academic theory.

Throughout the course, participants will explore how to align their innovations with nature’s design principles, develop viable business models, and understand pathways for funding, IP, and partnerships. You’ll learn storytelling techniques, build supportive networks, and gain access to the Ray of Hope ecosystem—providing an unmatched insight into what works in nature-inspired ventures. Whether transitioning from academia or advancing prototypes, this course empowers changemakers to turn their passion for nature-inspired innovation into impactful, market-ready solutions.

Unlike the Ray of Hope Accelerator, this 4-week course is open to anyone with a nature-inspired idea and does not require an application or a fully formed startup.

• Early-stage nature-inspired entrepreneurs. Particularly those still in or transitioning from academia (PhDs, post-docs) into nature-inspired and impact-driven ventures.
• Scientists, engineers and designers with strong technical ideas looking to understand commercialization and market pathways.
• Biomimicry enthusiasts who have a well-developed idea or prototype but lack business know-how (and sometimes, scientific backing).
• Sustainability professionals seeking to turn nature-inspired ideas into products or ventures with measurable impact.
• Potential applicants of the Ray of Hope Accelerator (or even applicants that were turned away because they were too early or not a good fit for the program).

• Participants will learn how to align nature’s design principles to develop nature-inspired ideas into viable, market-ready solutions.
• Participants will understand business modeling, funding pathways, IP, and partnerships to support innovation growth.
• Participants will gain skills in storytelling and communication to effectively engage stakeholders and investors.
• Participants will build networks within the Ray of Hope ecosystem and learn from real-world case studies of successful nature-inspired ventures.

Module 1: From inspiration to innovation: laying the groundwork for a nature-inspired venture

Module 2: From lab bench to business model: commercial pathways for biomimicry

Module 3: Impact-driven entrepreneurship: leading with purpose and practicality

Module 4: Building bridges: storytelling, funding, and the power of community

Few industries command such global influence while intertwining as deeply with our daily lives as the fashion and textile industry, yet its rapid growth has exacted a heavy toll on our planet. The waste generated has further created a fundamentally broken system that is a significant contributor to humanity’s overshoot of Earth’s ecological limits and planetary boundaries. The industry operates on a linear “take-make-waste” model that depletes finite resources, generates enormous amounts of non-degradable waste and pollution, and operates with disregard for natural ecological cycles. Urgent action is needed to transform how we design and operate the fashion sector, recognizing that everything we make will ultimately return to the Earth. By learning from nature’s time-tested strategies, particularly the processes of decomposition through breakdown and transformation of materials, we can shift the industry towards a regenerative system.

This course will dive deeper into the current paradigm, and equip participants with the tools and inspiration needed to look to nature for solutions. Each week, we will host discussions and activities aimed at addressing the underlying challenges within this system as well as hear from companies leading the way in creating a life-friendly future. The Nature of Fashion course is a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in a community of biomimicry-minded sector-professionals and understand how to better translate strategies from the natural world to areas where they might make a real impact in the fashion and textile industry.

• Anyone in the fashion and textile industry ready to make a change
• Environmentalists and sustainability professionals 
• Designers, industry professionals, manufacturers, creators, company representatives, and other activators 
• Young professionals/university students
• No prior experience in biomimicry required, just your curiosity for nature’s inspiration

• Participants will develop a greater understanding of what it means to transform waste into a resource as inspired by nature and drive a related sector of the fashion industry to be more nature positive. 
• Participants will learn how to turn to nature for design solutions, and connect deeply with the organisms and strategies that they are inspired by.
• Participants will recognize the big ideas in this industry that can further help foster solutions towards the polycrisis of climate change and biodiversity loss.

Module 1: Understanding the Fashion Landscape 

Module 2: Learning from Nature – Introduction to the Biomimicry Process in Fashion and Textiles 

Module 3: The Solution Space Ecosystem

Module 4: Systems Shift