LESSON 2.1: WHY PRACTICE BIOMIMICRY?

Why Practice Biomimicry?

Watch my short video (~4mins) about why biomimics practice biomimicry and why it's an important sustainability framework.

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Why is Biomimetic Design Needed? Why now?

Nature has already solved many of the problems that humans are facing today and will face into the future. Life has existed on planet Earth for over 3.8 billion years -- that's a lot of research and development!

Watch this captivating 5-minute film A World of Solutions, narrated by Morgan Freeman, produced by Lyn Lear and directed by Louie Schwartzberg. The film was created for the 2014 United Nations Summit.

"We wanted to show that we are still in peril, but more, we have the means to solve our problems in the present. There are many reasons to be optimistic and hopeful." -- Lyn Lear, The Huffington Post, 2014 Links to an external site.

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What is Sustainability, Anyhow?

In the Sustainable Design program at MCAD (and in this course), I use the terms "sustainable" and "sustainability" for the design of products and services in the context of the Triple Bottom Line (a term coined by John Elkington (Links to an external site.) in 1994), where people, the planet and prosperity are considered in all aspects of a design from manufacture, distribution through end of life.

Another way to look at it is to ask: is the product or service that I have designed environmentally sustainable, socially sustainable, and financially sustainable? The triple bottom line is what we are striving for with sustainable designs.

Key things to consider when thinking about sustainability:

  • The word "sustain" is derived from a Latin word that means "to hold up". Sustain technically means to endure, maintain or support. "To provide what is needed for (something or someone) to exist, continue, etc." (Reference: Merriam-Webster).
  • However, the idea and usage of the term sustainability has evolved since the 1980's. It's moved beyond just maintenance or survival to a definition where we can do more and better for the planet and its people (this change occurred because of the Brundtland definition that I share with you below).
  • The idea of "don't eat your seed corn" has been a persistent theme in human culture for millennia and it is at the heart of sustainability. (In case you don't know, "seed corn" is what is saved from the current year's corn crop to plant the next year's corn crop.) So, what does this mean? Essentially, do not use up what you need to keep a system going. For example, traditional clear-cutting of timber is very efficient and a low-cost way of harvesting wood, but it's not sustainable -- it's "eating the seed corn", so to speak. In comparison, sustainable forestry practices using planting, growing and harvesting methods that mimic nature to allow both healthful and profitable ecosystems. (Reference: Packaging Sustainability, 2009)
  • First key definition that is widely accepted for "sustainable": "Sustainable development is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." (Reference: Our Common Future, World Commission on Environment and Development - The Brundtland Commission, 1987)
  • Sustainable development is considered an organizing principle for sustainability, where ecology, economics, politics, culture are interconnected domains to consider. (Reference: Our Common Future)
  • Let's boil this down..."Everything that we need for our survival and well-being depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment. Sustainability creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations." (Reference: United States Environmental Protection Agency)
  • As Jay Harmon (biomimetic designer from PAX Scientific) says, "If we're not sustainable, we're terminal."
  • Note: one of the most exciting things about biomimicry is that it has the possibility to take us beyond sustainable to regenerative, where our designs actually promote life on earth.

Want to learn even more about this topic?

Watch this ~15min video (published by Joshua Foss, an instructor of Fundamentals of Sustainable Design at MCAD) will help everyone get on the same page about what we mean when we say "sustainable" or "sustainability".

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How Biomimicry?

In this compelling Ted Talk, Using Nature's Genius in Architecture, Michal Pawlyn shares ways biomimicry is creating a sustainability revolution (~14mins).

"How can architects build a new world of sustainable beauty? By learning from nature. At TEDSalon in London, Michael Pawlyn describes three habits of nature that could transform architecture and society: radical resource efficiency, closed loops, and drawing energy from the sun." -- TEDSalon, London, 2010.

Learn more about Michal Pawlyn Links to an external site., architect, and his awe-inspiring sustainability-focused projects Links to an external site..

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