Biomimicry supplies sustainable flow models

Nature runs on sunlight.
Nature uses only the energy it needs.
Nature fits form to function.
Nature recycles everything.
Nature rewards cooperation.
Nature banks on diversity.
Nature demands local expertise.
Nature curbs excesses from within.
Nature taps the power of limits.

'Life has been performing design experiments on Earth’s R&D lab for 3.8 billion years. What’s flourishing on the planet today are the best ideas---those that perform well in context, while economizing on energy and materials. Whatever your company’s design challenge, the odds are high that one or more of the world’s 30 million creatures has not only faced the same challenge, but has evolved effective strategies to solve it.' Biomimicry is the redesign of industrial processes and products based on new understandings of how natural systems and creatures accomplish similar ends. It may be the most promising branch of the growing sustainable design movement.

For instance lets look at Novozymes. Based in Denmark, Novosymes is the world leader in biotech-based industrial enzymes and microorganisms. "We find biological solutions to industrial problems and use tomorrow's sustainable technology,"says CEO Steen Riisgaard.

What Novozymes Does

What's a biotech enzyme? Enzymes are found in every living organism from humans to microorganisms. They are nature's tools -- biodegradable proteins that speed up all vital biological processes. For example, enzymes in our stomach cut food into smaller pieces so it can be transformed into energy. When enzymes are finished with their work, they degrade and are absorbed back into nature's cycle.

Novozymes enzymes are working their way into many everyday products including laundry detergents, bread, olive oil, wine and even the turf on your local golf course. Why, for example, would manufacturers use enzymes to clean clothes instead of synthetic chemicals? Enzymes perform better. They make the manufacturing process more efficient and less expensive. Clothes can be cleaned at lower temperatures. In the paper and pulp industries, enzymes can replace chlorine. They are completely biodegradable, which reduces the company's waste stream and the need for undesirable chemicals.

Janine Benyus, the Co-founder of the Biomimicry Guild, provides the impetus for the development of Biomimicry with the publication of her renowned book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature in 1997 (William Morrow). As a life sciences writer, she has authored six books, including an animal behavior guide called Beastly Behaviors and three ecosystem-first field guides: The Field Guide to Wildlife Habitats of the Western US, The Field Guide to Wildlife Habitats of the Eastern US, and Northwoods Wildlife: A Watcher's Guide to Habitats. This from her book:

'At the same time that ecological science is showing us the extent of our folly, it is also revealing the pattern of nature's wisdom reflected in all life. With the leadership of the biomimics, I am hoping that we will have the brains, the humility, and the spirituality that are needed to hold back that ball and take our seat at the front of nature's class.

This time, we come not to learn about nature so that we might circumvent or control her, but to learn from nature, so that we might fit in, at last and for good, on the Earth from which we sprang. We have a million questions. How should we grow our food? How should we make our materials? How should we power ourselves, heal ourselves, store what we learn? How should we conduct business in a way that honors the Earth? As we discover what nature already knows, we will remember how it feels to roar like a jaguar--to be a part of, not apart from, the genius that surrounds us.'

Let the living lessons begin.

(C) 1997 Janine M. Benyus All rights reserved. ISBN: 0-688-13691-5

Resouces:
http://www.biomimicry.net/