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Biomimicry Institute Launches their Inaugural Co-Lab focused on Buildings, Cities & Infrastructure
Biomimicry Institute Launches their Inaugural Co-Lab focused on Buildings, Cities & Infrastructure aimed to catalyze sector-wide shift toward nature-positive solutions.
Ray of Hope Gallery 2025: Ten Nature-Inspired Innovations Now Live on AskNature
There is a phrase from Janine Benyus’s book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature that has never left me: “Life creates conditions conducive to life.” In a moment when we urgently need systems that regenerate rather…
Woven into the World: Reflections on the Spaces that Hold Us
In the Northern Hemisphere, where I am writing from in Montana, the world is beginning its slow exhale into quiet rhythms. But wherever you are in the world, whether your days are growing shorter or…
Cities as Ecosystems: Rethinking Infrastructure with Nature as Mentor
Modern cities are incredible feats of engineering, but many are also brittle, siloed, and unsustainable. Buildings consume vast amounts of energy, water, and materials. Water, waste, and power infrastructure systems are often designed in isolation,…
Shifting Landscapes: Reflections from Textile Exchange 2025 in Lisbon
From Convincing to Creating The mood throughout the conference was urgent yet hopeful. As Inna Kitaychik described it, the subtext has shifted from “What should we do to fix the problem?” to “Who is my…
Lessons from our Nature Retreat: Voices from the 2025 Cohort (Part 2)
This is Part 2 of my reflections on the Nature Retreat with the 2025 cohort of nature-inspired startups, following my first article, Doing the Hard Things That Matter: Reflections on our 2025 Nature Retreat. At the…
5 Key Characteristics of Nature-Inspired Startups
What does it mean for a startup to be nature-inspired? The phrase sounds simple, but it holds layers of meaning. At our Ray of Hope Accelerator, “nature-inspired” isn’t a tagline, it’s both an eligibility requirement…
From Field Research to Regenerative Design: How Urban Bird Research Led Me to Biomimicry
Look out of your window, and you’re likely to see buildings, concrete, and human-made materials. In most places where we live, you’ll see an environment defined by human needs: reflective structures, rigid, manufactured materials, and…
Doing the Hard Things That Matter: Reflections on our 2025 Nature Retreat (Part 1)
We just had our Nature Retreat with the 2025 cohort: 10 nature-inspired startups, 18 participants, and I’m thinking about Paul Graham’s famous advice: do things that don’t scale. At its core, the message is that…
Reflections from BioInnovation Midwest in Omaha with Director of Innovation, Sarah McInerney
This week I had the joy of moderated a panel at BioInnovation Midwest on “Incubating the Future of U.S. Biomanufacturing: Key Building Blocks for Scaling Innovation from Startup through to Commercial Success.” with Dr. Chern-Hooi Lim, CEO of New Iridium, Brian Jacobson, Program Manager…
