The Biomimicry Blog

Dear designer, 

Some lucky individuals just have it. 

They can dance to the music of nature. Without a fuss, and to the beat. 

That's Michael Pawlyn, a pioneer of biomimicry, nature-inspired design extraordinaire… and someone who was born to design to the music of nature.

He’s also building the ...

Structural color is a natural wonder.

Sadly, this nature-inspired innovation has yet to fully see the light of day.

We’re striving to change that through sharing the best of what nature has already figured out. 

This article explains what structural color is, how it was discovered, and what natur...

Ah, books! 

Today we proudly begin our Biomimicry Book Club and set our reading intentions for 2024. 

For the opening chapter, we’re listing our Top 10 biomimicry books of all time (so far 😉).

Each book covers or overlaps with biomimicry, from business to the built environment. Biomimicry is a mi...

With our world now in crisis, planetary debates suggest we choose between capitalism and the planet. 

What about the third choice? 

‘Either or’ debates distract us from what is so desperately needed… action. The stoic philosopher in me is drawn to the single most important practice: differentiatin...

Whether you start with biological inspiration that leads to a design, or whether you start with a challenge and then look to nature for design solutions, there are 4 key phases/steps in the practice of biomimicry. Biomimicry is fundamentally a translation between nature and design, and in today’s ar...

We love tools like ChatGPT, but perhaps not for the reasons you think. 

Today we dive deeper into the world of Bio-inspired AI. Generative Artificial Intelligence (Generative AI) and biomimicry, and how in combination with the right humans might bring about a new Cambrian explosion of nature-inspir...

When you are learning a new language, skill or practice, there are generally two key challenges that arise - either you are time constrained or intellectually challenged. The sweet spot (in learning and in life) is to find a challenge worth pursuing. Your challenge should be 

1.) hard enough that y...

Hello bio-designers

Every year, the Biomimicry Institute assembles the top nature-inspired startups in the world to accelerate their growth. From facilitating events to disconnect from the internet and reconnect with the wild world (we all need a bit more of that), to providing sustainable and biom...

Who would win in a battle between a unicorn and a zebra? The zebra, for it has so many black belts! With that (stellar) joke out of the way, this article aims to provide you with an instruction manual for growing a Zebra business and share how we’re thinking about it at Learn Biomimicry.

Step 1: Kn...

For 20 years I’ve driven environmental and social impact at iconic organizations including National Geographic Society, The Nature Conservancy and United Way. A few years ago I began to question the efficacy of conventional conservation. One day when talking with a colleague we wondered what it woul...