‘Learn Biomimicry’ Online Course Launches with 50% Discount for Earth Day

50 years later, the call to action for Earth Day is receiving recognition. These online courses provide the fundamental tools to create regenerative design and solve the climate crisis.

SAN FRANCISCO — 11 March 2020 — ‘Learn Biomimicry’ is a new, online course offering created by BiomimicrySA (South Africa) in partnership with the Biomimicry Institute. To kick off the launch today, the course will be offered at a 50% discount to support the Earth Day Network’s call for creative, innovative, and brave solutions needed to regenerate and repair the damage done to our planet. Earth Day is about solving the planet’s greatest environmental challenges, and biomimicry offers the solutions needed to redefine the way we think, design, and do business to be more resilient, adaptive, and regenerative.

“There are two things to remember: first, all the solutions we need to reverse climate change already exist technologically; and second, all the instruction we need to ‘redesign everything’ can be found in nature,” said Beth Rattner, Director of the Biomimicry Institute. “Our main job — maybe our only job — is to recognize that we are one of 8.7 million other species on this planet. The days of human exceptionalism are over. We can fit in if we study the deep and recurring design patterns found in the natural world.”

Biomimicry is the practice of learning from and emulating the strategies found in the surviving species living on Earth today. Since the concept was popularized in the 1997 seminal book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature by Janine Benyus, the practice of nature-inspired design has transformed educational settings — from a free curriculum offered to youth educators through the Biomimicry Youth Design Challenge to higher educational and professional opportunities like those offered by Minneapolis College of Art and Design Master of Arts in Sustainable Design (and free online courses), University of Akron’s Biomimicry Research and Innovation Center, and Arizona State University’s Master of Science program for Biomimicry. Students and entrepreneurs across the world also participate in the Biomimicry Global Design Challenge, an applied learning practice where new learners create conceptual solutions for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The new course is an affordable training that delivers short, easy-to-follow videos, information-rich handbooks, accessible from any device. There is also a certificate of completion that provides the recognition for gaining a comprehensive understanding of the concepts, tools, and terminology of biomimicry. The online courses couples well with the Institute’s Biomimicry Global Design Challenge to offer people a guided practice that results in a nature-inspired design solution.

“Biomimicry South Africa has created a visually beautiful, educationally rich online course that we hope reaches a broad audience,” said Rattner. “It is a tool that will help students of all ages see plants, animals, insects, and fungi with a renewed sense of curiosity. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself staring at the branching pattern of a tree or the structure of your dog’s fur for long moments.”

The course was designed by Claire Janisch, Biomimicry Professional and founder of BiomimicrySA, and Jessica Berliner, Biomimicry Practitioner and Communication designer. The courses are also enriched with film content and ongoing support from ReWild Africa, and the content development was sponsored by Exxaro Resources.

“We designed this course for anyone who feels that we could be improving the way we design our products, processes, and systems, and those that have a thirst for a more sustainable, regenerative, and resilient world,” said Janisch. “Our most experienced teacher out there is nature, and we have a lot to learn.”

‘Learn Biomimicry’ launches with three initial course offerings: Introduction to Biomimicry, Biomimicry Life’s Principles (the deep design lessons found in nature), and a Biomimicry Masterclass, which advances the learnings from the first courses and explores what the world could look like if Biomimicry Thinking was applied at the systems levels. Classes can be purchased separately or in a package.

Each course comes with vivid case studies of existing organizations that are revolutionizing the fields of product design, life-friendly chemistry, renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, land rehabilitation, materials engineering, architecture, city planning, civil engineering, water management, hygiene and medicine, industrial design, building materials, business models, and more.

50 years ago on April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans took to the streets to demand a new way of living on our planet. People today are looking for a way to get involved and to find hope for solving the challenges we collectively face. Earth Day 2020 stands as another historic moment for citizens to rise up and act.

Participants must register for the course by 11:59a PT on April 22, 2020 to take advantage of the 50% discount. To register, visit learnbiomimicry.com.

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ABOUT BIOMIMICRYSA & REWILD AFRICA

As a regional network of The Biomimicry Institute, BiomimicrySA promotes the study and imitation of nature’s remarkably efficient designs, bringing together scientists, engineers, architects, and innovators who can use those models to create sustainable technologies. BiomimicrySA connects, inspires, educates, and enables biomimics in South Africa and beyond. In the launch and running of Learn Biomimicry, BiomimicrySA have continued to work closely with ReWild Africa – whose mission is to promote and support solutions to ecological collapse.

ABOUT THE BIOMIMICRY INSTITUTE

The Biomimicry Institute is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization founded in 2006 that offers open access education for nature-inspired solutions. The Institute gives people a way to design for a healthy planet with AskNature.org, a free online resource that contains strategies found in nature and examples of ways they are used in design. It also hosts a Biomimicry Global Design Challenge and Youth Design Challenge to provide project-based education, a Launchpad for entrepreneurship to bring designs to market, and a Global Biomimicry Network to connect innovators. To support its work and get involved in the biomimicry movement, visit biomimicry.org and connect with the team on social media.

Media Contact:

Lex Amore

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