News and Ideas from the Biomimicry Institute
Why Startups with the Right Sustainability Data are Poised to Thrive
Navigating the landscape of sustainable reporting frameworks is not easy or affordable for most startups. Instead, they need to focus on being lean and flexible to survive the early stages while striving for an ambitious impact-focused mission. However, some recent news from the White House and UN make us believe that startups that are prepared with the right sustainability data will thrive with a unique value proposition.
More Stories
What We Fear Most May Help Keep Us Alive
We know what’s at stake. It’s an active decision to pursue innovations and strategies that honor life for the long-haul versus choosing quickies that lead to our next extinction. And if fact-based efforts and “last chance” climate emergency conferences have hardly moved the needle (COP26 summit agreements resulted in 0.1 degree C from future climate breakdown) then maybe fear, or the very real fear of losing what we love, will.
A Look Back at 2021
We are proud of the major accomplishments we’ve achieved over the past year. Here is a snapshot of what we’ve been up to—made possible by the generous support of our global community. To read the full impact in our 2021 Year in Review report, visit biomimicry.org/impact.
The Nature of Fashion Turns to Action
The Design for Decomposition is a bold initiative to realign the underlying principles of both the fashion and waste management industries with the laws of physics and biology to create cascading benefits for climate, biodiversity, and social equity. Such an ambitious aim requires partners who are courageous and have vision.
Make a Difference on Giving Tuesday
Taken as a whole, you will make it possible for us to meet, and hopefully exceed, our goals. You’ll be helping to solve humanity’s biggest challenges with nature’s proven solutions. And you’ll get us all one step closer to securing a sustainable future for the next generation.
For every dollar you give today through the end of the year, the Kendeda Fund has generously offered to match your donation. Thank you for supporting our shared mission.
Sharing the Stories of Biomimicry Educators from Across the Globe
To help formal and non-formal educators learn from each other and pass on creative and effective ways to teach biomimicry, the Sharing Stories Project was born. The project’s interviewers reached out to educators across the globe who are using biomimicry to engage young people in solution-based thinking and inspire them to look at the natural world from a new perspective.
Benjamin Banneker: A Life Told in Cicada Years
The emergence of 17-year cicadas in the summer of 2021 revived interest in a paper Janet Barber co-authored about the role of Benjamin Banneker — a free African-American in 18th-century Maryland — as one of the first naturalists to record scientific information and observations of the insects.
Hope in Action – Learning from Nature to Solve Big Problems
Systemic, nature-inspired solutions exist to lessen, and ultimately reverse humanity’s negative impact on the planet, regenerating ecosystems and revitalizing human systems. We hope these case studies illuminate some of these human-caused problems, and show that if we turn to nature for solutions we may just come up with better performing alternatives.
Youth Design Challenge Enters its 5th Year: See What’s New in 2021-22 Program
Calling all middle and high school educators! The Youth Design Challenge opened registration today for the 2021-22 program cycle, and you can gain access to engaging instructional models aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). If you’re new to us, the Youth Design Challenge serves as a bridge from core concepts to advanced project-focused learning for students. We equip learners with the tools they need to solve the world’s pressing problems using the teachings of nature.
An Introduction to Life’s Principles
As you are reading this – maybe with a cup of coffee in hand, or with a breeze coming through the window – you are a part of an intricate and exquisite system of systems. Everything around you (and within you) is working, rather sneakily, to maintain the careful balance that keeps us all alive.
A Minute to Change the World
Over the course of the 10-week Ray of Hope Prize program, our mentors and advisors help the top nature-inspired startups in the world describe their technology and the problem it addresses. Honing this message is an essential step to gaining traction in a crowded and noisy marketplace. Here’s a taste of the minute pitches from our 2020 and 2021 cohorts.
How Regenerative Agriculture Can Impact Soil Erosion
The movement to be more sustainable and to ‘go green’ has finally become a priority in many areas of the world. It has encouraged thousands of people to reevaluate the choices they are making and the many rippling impacts that those choices have. Many are demanding changes to the economy and industries that they purchase from to help them achieve sustainability goals.
The Natural Orders Hidden Inside your Business (And When It’s Time to Ask Nature for Help)
By understanding the overlap between the patterns of nature and our businesses, we can identify the highest leverage opportunities available to us. It can help us to define the problem we actually want to solve. By understanding the way nature organizes the world, you’ll begin to see its patterns everywhere you look. How does the power law distribution apply to your business? Need help finding inspiration? Head to AskNature.org and see if there are answers already waiting for you.
How Nature-Inspired Material Solutions Will Halt Microplastic Pollution
The Microfiber Innovation Challenge is a competition awarding $650,000 for solutions to plastic microfiber pollution. How can biomimicry inform the upstream innovations required for the textile industry to turn off the plastic tap and work in harmony with nature?
How Combining Nature and Science Can Determine Humanity’s Future
Humanity is increasingly affected by social issues including overpopulation and the negative effects of climate change. But biomimicry and scientific research could bring about viable solutions.