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Principles and Practices in Sustainable Development for the Engineering and Built Environment Professions
Unit
3 - Biomimicry/Green Chemistry
Lecture
9: Biomimicry - Design Inspired by Nature
BIOMIMICRY
is one of those rare hopeful notes in the modern
chorus of environmental warnings. Janine Benyus
offers a radical alternative to today’s
industrial model of progress – an elegant
survival strategy drawn from a better understanding
of those natural systems on which we are still
totally dependent. Perhaps the best thing about
this ‘quest for innovations inspired by
nature’ is that it is more than just a theory.
It is already underway.
Jonathon
Porritt, Chairman, Chair of the UK Prime Minister’s
Sustainable Development Commission, 2006[1]
To
discuss the concept of ‘Biomimicry’
and the principles on which the field is founded.
To also discuss the role of the professional community
in applying this methodology as a global network
of Biomimicry practitioners. This lecture has been
developed based on extensive conversations with
Janine Benyus and is a testament to her leadership
in the field as we attempt to communicate the concept
to engineers.
Benyus,
J. (1997) Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by
Nature, HarperCollins, New York, Chapter 1.
Also, Biomimicry an Introduction (http://www.biomimicryguild.com/janinefirstchap.html.),
pp 1-10.
Hargroves, K. and Smith, M. (2006) ‘Innovation
inspired by nature – Biomimicry’, ECOS,
no. 129. Available at www.naturaledgeproject.net/Documents/Biomimicry_000.pdf
(3 pages), pp. 27-29.
Hargroves,
K., Smith, M. and Paten, C. (2007) Engineering
Sustainable Solutions Program, Critical Literacies
Portfolio – Role of Engineers in Sustainable
Development A, The Natural Edge Project, Australia,
Unit 2 Lecture 7.
1. Building on from knowledge gathered over centuries
of harvesting and harnessing nature, engineers and
designers are now exploring the exciting field of
emulating nature’s successes to assist sustainable
development.
2. Most of the solutions from the last 300 years
have been poorly adapted (or mal-adapted)
to natural ecosystems. In fact, many of these ‘solutions’
have lead to significant global challenges such
as those caused by the creation and dispersion of
pollution, including greenhouse gases, toxic chemicals
and other hazardous substances.
3. Faced with the need to
address these challenges, engineers and designers
will be tempted to emulate the way humans have problem-solved,
rather than asking nature’s advice. Russian
researchers working on a global database for patents
(TRIZ)[2]
uncovered an overlap of a mere 10 -12 percent between
man-made patents and natural systems. As Janine
puts it, ‘when we look to nature, 90 percent
of the time we will be surprised!’
4. If we are to achieve harmony between development
and nature on a global scale, we need to combine
our engineering knowledge with the knowledge contained
in natural systems, rather than just extracting
resources from it, to deliver solutions that are
well-adapted to our global environment...
Innovation inspired by Nature.
5. In the words of Janine Benyus, Biomimicry is
quite simply, ‘the art of asking nature
for advice’ to assist in creating more
sustainable ways of living.[3]
6. In engineering terms, Biomimicry describes the
enquiry-based process of studying and mimicking
the design and behaviour of nature, to inform the
development of solutions that meet the needs of
society while being in harmony with the planet’s
natural systems. It is the cross-over between Natural
Systems and Human Systems – using the knowledge
of nature and a method of enquiry to inform the
built environment.
7. In almost every field of endeavour, innovators
are mimicking nature’s design elegance to
create sustainable solutions.
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Brief
Background Information |
Understanding
the Relationship between Natural Systems and Human
Systems[4]
It is apparent on a global level that
many current practices harnessing nature’s
resources are unsustainable - we need to rediscover
nature’s knowledge. Consider that for the
majority of our time on the planet as a species,
we have been hunters and gatherers. As hunters and
gatherers (harvesting nature) and then as Agrarians
through pre-industrial times (harnessing nature),
we paid a great deal of attention to natural systems
as a source of knowledge - we naturally mimicked
the organisms that we admired.
As our knowledge of natural systems increased, we
began to harness those organisms that we needed,
then to process nature’s raw materials to
produce products and services (for example through
agricultural practices, and steel and plastics manufacturing).
Once we realised that we could make value-added
products from nature’s raw resources, we began
paying less attention to natural systems, seeing
them more as a source of inputs for our products
and services. As we transitioned from organism domestication
to mass production and industrialisation, ‘transgenic
engineering’ emerged, with the mindset of
‘animal as factory’.
Today, when we try to solve problems (such as filtration,
adhesion, desalination, energy harvesting etc),
we nearly always study the way human’s have
problem-solved in the past, rather than how nature
has done the very same thing. However, combining
our knowledge of processes with our knowledge of
natural systems, we now have the opportunity to
build products and services that are in harmony
with natural systems – ‘Biomimetic’
solutions.
The Natural Systems Understanding Map (Figure 9.1)
represents the transition in application of knowledge
- from harvesting or using Nature, to innovations
that are inspired by Nature, where:
-
Harvest [Take] refers to using
materials provided by nature – plant or
animal – with no human intervention in
the production process itself. This includes
using rainforest timber, or fishing for seafood.
This is also known as ‘Bio-Utilisation’.
However, rather than simply living off nature,
if we instead saw nature as a source of ideas
and inspiration (‘Nature as Mentor’),
we could seek to live in balance with nature.
-
Harness [Adapt] refers to domesticating
the producer - domesticating organisms to assist
us in product development. This includes for
example agricultural practices using ‘beasts
of burden’, and using bacteria for the
production of insulin. This is also known as
‘Bio-Assistance’.
-
Harmony [Copy] is the art of
asking nature for advice, to assist in creating
more sustainable ways of living. As Benyus explains,
‘This includes studying nature’s
best ideas, designs and strategies and then
emulating them so that we might live more gracefully
on the planet’.[5]
This includes for example designing the front
of a train like the beak of a bird, or an adhesive
tape like the pads of a gecko’s feet.
This is also known as ‘Bio-Inspired’
or ‘Bio-Mimetic Design’.
Figure
9.1. Natural Systems Understanding Map:
showing the relationship between systems knowledge,
enquiry, and the application of biomimicry to human
systems
Source: The Natural Edge
Project, Biomimicry Guild (2006)
Innovation from nature can be drawn from a number
of areas, such as:
-
The structure, or form,
of nature (‘Nature as Model’), i.e.
aerodynamic shapes, non-chemical adhesive methods
and structural finishes and colour.
-
The process of nature,
i.e. cooling systems, nutrient cycling, filtration,
desalination and energy supply.
-
Nature’s ecosystem,
i.e. feedback loops, diversity, organism niches
and interactions, symbiotic relationships, food
webs, energy and material flows, resilience,
and the role of redundancy.
Besides providing the model, nature can also provide
the measure (‘Nature as Measure’). We
can look to nature as a standard against which to
judge the ‘rightness’ of our innovations.
Are they life promoting? Do they fit in? Will
they last as long as is needed, and no longer?
A well-adapted product or service would address
all three innovation categories, whereas mal-adapted
products or services may focus on one or two of
the categories to the detriment of the others. As
Janine explains in Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired
by Nature,[6]
we could manufacture the way animals and plants
do, using sun and simple compounds to produce totally
biodegradable fibres, ceramics, plastics, and chemicals.
Our farms, modelled on prairies, could be self-fertilising
and pest-resistant. To find new drugs or crops,
we could consult animals and insects that have used
plants for millions of years to keep themselves
healthy and nourished. Even computing could take
its cue from nature, with software that ‘evolves’
solutions, and hardware that uses the lock-and-key
paradigm to compute by touch.
In each case, nature can provide the models: solar
cells copied from leaves, steely fibres woven spider-style,
shatterproof ceramics drawn from mother-of-pearl,
cancer cures compliments of chimpanzees, perennial
grains inspired by tall grass, computers that signal
like cells, and a closed-loop economy that takes
its lessons from redwoods, coral reefs, and oak-hickory
forests. Most of nature’s products and services
are biotic; their processes are carried out in ambient
temperature, low pressure and low toxicity conditions
(with the exception of a volcano, tidal wave, hurricane
or bush fire, which are considered abiotic).
- Benyus, J. (2002) Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired
by Nature, HarperCollins, New York.
-
The Natural Edge Project and Biomimicry Guild (2006)
Australian Tour 2006 Resources. Available
at www.naturaledgeproject.net/BenyusTour06.aspx.
Accessed 5 January 2007.
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Key
Words for Searching Online |
Biomimicry, Biomimetic engineering, Biomimicry Guild.
[1]
Porritt, J. (2006) Capitalism as if the world
mattered, Earthscan, London. (Back)
[2]
The TRIZ Journal (n.d.) What is TRIZ?. Available
at www.triz-journal.com/whatistriz.html.
Accessed 5 January 2007. (Back)
[3]
BRC (2005) Video Interview with Janine Benyus
- Author, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature.
Available at http://www.brc21.org/carson/benyus_clips.html.
Accessed 5 January 2007. (Back)
[4]
This lecture has been developed in collaboration with
Janine Benyus. (Back)
[5]
BRC (2005) Video Interview with Janine Benyus
- Author, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature.
Available at http://www.brc21.org/carson/benyus_clips.html.
Accessed 5 January 2007. (Back)
[6]
Benyus, J. (1997) Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired
by Nature, Harper Collins, New York. (Back)
The
Natural Edge Project Engineering Sustainable Solutions
Program is supported by the Australian National Commission
for UNESCO through the International Relations Grants
Program of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
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