{"id":2882,"date":"2008-04-11T01:42:43","date_gmt":"2008-04-11T07:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/2008\/04\/11\/delivering-natures-wisdom-to-business\/"},"modified":"2008-04-11T01:42:43","modified_gmt":"2008-04-11T07:42:43","slug":"delivering-natures-wisdom-to-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/delivering-natures-wisdom-to-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Delivering Nature&#8217;s Wisdom to Business"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/files\/2008\/04\/abalone-shell_blog.jpg\" alt=\"abalone shell\" \/><strong>Years before the green movement took root,<\/strong> I had the pleasure of seeing Janine Benyus speak about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biomimicryguild.com\/guild_biomimicry.html\">Biomimicry<\/a>. I was just as inspired by her work then as I am now.<br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\nA biologist by training, Janine is a passionate proponent of using nature&#8217;s wisdom, <\/strong>based on billions of years of refinement, to discover &#8220;nonpolluting, energy-efficient manufacturing technologies&#8221; that can be applied to provide elegant design solutions for commercial enterprises.<\/p>\n<p><strong>In a recent article, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessweek.com\/innovate\/content\/feb2008\/id20080211_074559.htm\">Business Week<\/a> noted that Janine was named Environmental Hero of 2007 by Time.<\/strong> Through a research nonprofit called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biomimicryinstitute.org\/\">Biomimicry Institute<\/a> and a for-profit consulting firm called the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biomimicryguild.com\/indexguild.html\">Biomimicry Guild<\/a>, Janine brings interdisciplinary groups of biologists, engineers, and designers together to uncover natural phenomenon that can be replicated in corporate and commercial applications.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><strong>As Adiel Gavish, who recently attended one of the Biomimicry Guild workshops,<\/strong> states in her blog &#8220;The Living Business:&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul> <em>These systems principles can especially be replicated in any business-small to multi-national, and in any industry. By unlocking the secrets of nature&#8217;s success, we can not only improve our business systems, but watch them adapt, grow and evolve like a living ecosystem or organism.<\/em><\/ul>\n<p><strong>A number of big name corporations have worked with the Biomimicry Guild.<\/strong> A few specific examples will give you an idea of the power of this natural catalyst for innovation.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Locusts&#8217; ability to swarm without mid-air collisions provided Ford with the inspiration for an anti-collision system for their 2005 Volvo model.<\/li>\n<li>The abalone shell, and its way of assembling its shell, inspired IBM designers to use a similar process to develop processors using 35% less energy.<\/li>\n<li>The beak of a kingfisher became the model for the nose cone of Japan&#8217;s 500 Series Shinkansen bullet train. (See the Business Week article for illustrative comparison photos.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Her current project,  Nature&#8217;s 100 Best Technologies is a web collaboration <\/strong>between The Biomimicry Institute, The Biomimicry Guild, Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives, The World Conservation Union, and the United Nations Environment Program to &#8220;highlight the organisms and\/or ecosystems around the world that have the greatest innovative solution potential in the areas of manufacturing, materials, health, energy, chemistry, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, building, economics, and more.&#8221; Interestingly this research focuses on organisms and environmental habitats that are in danger of extinction. The goal is to stimulate discovery and &#8220;reinvention of products, processes, and ways of living&#8221; while sparking conservation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>As these ideas gain traction in the business world, innovations are likely to happen in many areas of our economy.<\/strong> I encourage you to expand how you think of nature and it&#8217;s contribution to solving our current crisis. The answers are there&#8230;will we find them in time?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A biologist by training, Janice is a passionate proponent of using nature&#8217;s wisdom, based on billions of years of refinement, to discover &#8220;nonpolluting, energy-efficient manufacturing technologies&#8221; that can be applied to provide elegant design solutions for commercial enterprises.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":17479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[579,143,580,581,582],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Delivering Nature&#039;s Wisdom to Business &#8226; Sustainablog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/delivering-natures-wisdom-to-business\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Delivering Nature&#039;s Wisdom to Business &#8226; 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