Innovations


  • Case Studies – Ask Nature (Biomimicry Institute). Besides biological strategies, AskNature also includes examples of biomimicry-inspired innovations (click on “products” at the bottom of the list on the page “Explore by Function”). Some of the examples provided can be out of date (companies have sometimes been bought or have failed since the original post); however, the examples can still provide an idea of how a biological design principle inspired a human design.
  • Case studies – Biomimicry 3.8
  • Terrapin Bright Green – Tapping Into Nature – Tapping into Nature (2015) explores how pioneering companies are leveraging these adaptations and demonstrates the vast and largely untapped market potential of bio-inspired innovation. Their list often overlaps that on AskNature.org, and they provide the commercial status (concept/ prototype/ development/ in market) of the innovation as of the report’s publication.
  • Scoop.It! – Biomimicry. Curated by Miguel Prazeres, this website contains links to articles describing a range of biomimicry examples (some more biomimetic than others). 

Organizations & Networks


Biomimicry
Additional Organizations with Nature-based Principles

Biology


Biology Through a Biomimicry Lens
Genius of place/Biome reports
Mobile App  Biology Resources
  • iNaturalist (A place to where you can record what you see in nature (contributing to science data repositories), meet other nature lovers, and learn about the natural world.)
  • QuestaGame (QuestaGame is a mobile game that gets players outdoors to discover and help preserve life on this planet.)
  • Merlin Bird ID (Merlin offers quick identification help for beginning and intermediate bird watchers to learn about North America’s most common birds.)
  • myGardenAnswers (Plant identification technology for mobile devices and a community of gardening experts who offer advice and guidance to our users)

Frameworks & Principles


Frameworks
Nature-based Principles

Design Challenges & Prizes


Challenges
Prizes
Open Innovation Sites

Videos


There are several talks on the web about biomimicry, and of course some are better than others. Below are some of the highlights.

Social Media


LinkedIn Groups

There are many LinkedIn pages for the Biomimicry Institute’s Global Network local organizations. I recommend searching for your local network in LinkedIn.

Facebook

There are many, many pages based on biomimicry in Facebook – I recommend just searching in facebook for pages. For local Biomimicry Global Network links, please visit the Biomimicry Institute’s Global Network page.

Books, Magazines & Websites


Recommended Books

Joe Zazzera’s Biomimicry (and Everything Related) Book List, cultivated during our Biomimicry Professional Program and still updated with good reads!

Recommended Magazines/Articles
  • The Biomimicry Column, GreenBiz – “Every month, we will explore how nature has inspired someone to create an innovative solution in our built world.”
  • The Biomimicry Manual, Inhabitat.
  • The Guardian also publishes articles on biomimicry – just do a search.
  • Zygote Quarterly – A quarterly online magazine on “the nexus of science and design in the field of biologically inspired design, using case studies, news and articles.”
Recommended Websites
  • Bioneers – Bioneers holds an annual conference for social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world’s most pressing environmental and social challenges.
  • Rooted In Nature – Website for learning about Biophilic Design
  • E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation – The E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation’s mission is to foster a knowing stewardship of our world through biodiversity research and education initiatives that promote and inform worldwide preservation of our biological heritage.
  • The Earth Genome Project – Creating a platform to enable easy-to-use, inexpensive, scientifically credible, continuously updated global information on natural resources, coupled with the creation of powerful and relevant decision-support tools, to enable the world’s key decision makers to consistently and routinely take into account the full value of nature and the consequences of their activities on natural systems. The platform and tools will exponentially lower the cost and time to analyze data and translate it into insights that decision makers can use.
  • Project Drawdown (Paul Hawken) – Project Drawdown is facilitating a broad coalition of researchers, scientists, graduate students, PhDs, post-docs, policy makers, business leaders and activists to assemble and present the best available information on climate solutions in order to describe their beneficial financial, social and environmental impact over the next thirty years.

Education & Innovation Tools


More and more tools and toolkits are emerging to help people bring nature-based inspiration into education and innovation settings. The following is a list of those I’m aware of – if you know of ones to add, please let me know!