Thank you to those who attended the 2009 Biomimicry Conference at the San Diego Zoo and Balboa Park on Oct. 1-2, 2009!

We have received overwhelmingly positive feedback from an audience that included executives, educators and business professionals from throughout the local and regional communities.  In fact,  over 92% of the post-symposium evaluations rated the conference as “excellent” or “very good.”
Highlights of this year’s conference included:

• Chip Heath’s inspirational thoughts on how we can build San Diego into a living, thriving biomimicry hub
• Janine Benyus’ descriptions of how nature manages its own water supply
• Jay Harman’s visual representations of the fundamental shape of life – the spiral
• Special guest appearances of our amazing elephants, cheetahs, koalas and hawks that represent the majesty and wonder of nature

Comments included:

• “This was one of the best conferences I’ve ever been to… in my life!”
• “Top-notch”
• “It was very well organized and run, and uniquely SD Zoo!”

To read more about the event, please click on these articles:

• TECH: Tapping into Mother Nature’s R&D lab
• Biomimicry, the Zoo, and San Diego Too
• Biomimicry Symposium in San Diego
• Nature’s Inventions: San Diego Conference Showcases Biomimicry Products
• Biomimicry Symposium: Learning from the Birds and the Bees, the Flowers and the Trees

Even more exciting is what comes next.  Our goal for the symposium was to bring together all sectors of the community to grow awareness of biomimicry’s potential for transforming industry and design.  We now have the opportunity to “build on the buzz” and together transform San Diego into a living, thriving biomimicry hub. 

We invite you to continue to be a part of San Diego’s biomimicry movement.  We are developing programs, workshops and seminars in nature-based design, application and funding, and are already planning for next year’s Biomimicry Symposium.  Please let us know if you would like to be notified of upcoming events or would like more information on how to be more involved.  Contact us.

San Diego is quickly becoming the hub for a new discipline called biomimicry.  In this Voice of San Diego article, Rebecca Tolin interviews businesses, government and the San Diego Zoo about their work in biomimicry.

Nature has already solved many of the problems that we are facing today. Point Loma Nazarene University is working with the San Diego Zoo and other institutions to develop biomimicry education and curriculum in the coming years.  For more, read the Biomimicry article in the Summer 2009 issue of Viewpoint.

For more information on our corporate and educational biomimicry services, or to be added to our biomimicry e-mail list, please contact us at 619-557-3927 or by e-mail through our online form.

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Hippo Sweat Offers Key to Natural Sunscreen

Termite Mounds Inspire Energy-Efficient Buildings

Butterfly Wings & Peacock Feathers Inspire New Display Screens

Scientists make super-strong metallic thread based on spider silk

Whale Fins Inspire New Wind Turbine Designs

Bullet Train Design Based on Kingfisher’s Beak

Self-Cleaning Paint Based on Lotus Leaves

Scientists Create Tough Ceramic That Mimics Mother of Pearl

Studying Bats to Improve Micro Air Vehicle Systems

Artificial Trees can provide Clean Renewable Energy

Dogs’ Sense of Smell Inspire E-Sniffing Machine

Bird Feathers Produce Color through Structure Similar to Beer Foam

Cactus-Inspired Building Designed in Qatar

Kelp Inspires New Method to Harness Energy

Optimizing Traffic by Learning from Leaf-Cutter Ants

Regenerating Nerve Cells with “Cotton Candy” in Polymers

New Sensors Based on Hair Structures of Blind Cavefish

Anti-Reflective Properties of Moth Eyes Inspire Efficient Solar Cells

Beetle Larvae Inspire Efficiency in Travel by Boat

Fish help Inspire Efficient Aquatic Vessels

Biomimicry is the science of taking inspiration from nature, its systems, processes, and elements to solve design problems in a sustainable manner.

Download a model of biomimicry in action.

Nature is our biggest and best R&D library, with 3.8 billions years of evolutionary research where only the most efficient and well-adapted species have survived. We believe that nature holds the solutions to all of our design problems. Not only are nature-based solutions elegant and efficient, they are also in harmony with the rest of the world. The San Diego Zoo has one of the largest plant and animal collections in the world, a multidisciplinary set of scientific and behavioral expertise and world-class facilities. We can help you unlock nature’s secrets and solve real-world problems with answers that have already been developed in nature.

The vision of our organization is to connect people to wildlife and conservation. Our vision for biomimicry is to connect people’s design challenges to nature’s solutions. By doing so, we can save the planet—one invention at a time.

The San Diego Zoo has partnered with the City of San Diego to become the world’s first biomimicry hub. We work with corporations to develop sustainable inventions that are inspired by nature and partner with academic institutions to teach biomimicry to students of all ages.

Services
We have developed a number of opportunities to introduce people to biomimicry, including:

• Introductory lectures on biomimicry
• Introductory workshops on biomimicry with exercises for stimulating biomimetic thinking
• Behind-the-scenes tours that provide real-life examples of nature’s innovations
• Design consulting, in which we bring together a multidisciplinary group of experts to help develop nature-based solutions to specific design problems.

Educational Resources
The San Diego Zoo offers introductory presentations and workshops on biomimicry.  For more information, please click here or call us at 619-557-3927.

The Biomimicry Institute offers formal and non-formal biomimicry educational curricula for students of all ages.  To access their resources, please click here

AskNature is an online database that organizes nature’s most elegant ideas organized by design and engineering function. 

Download a model of biomimicry in action.

Books on Biomimicry

Design For Life: The Architecture of Sim Van der Ryn, by Sim Van der Ryn	The gecko’s foot: Bio-inspiration, engineering new materials from nature. By Peter Forbes	Biomimetics: Biologically Inspired Technologies, by Yoseph Bar-Cohen	Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage, by Daniel Esty, Andrew Winston

Recent Articles on Biomimicry

The 15 Coolest Cases of Biomimicry. Brainz.org.  February 2009.

“Harvard Business Review’s top Business Breakthroughs of 2009: The Business of Biomimicry.”  Harvard Business Review.  By Janine Benyus and Gunter Pauli.  January 2009.

“Biomimetics: Design by Nature”. National Geographic.  By Tom Mueller, April 2008.   Using Nature as a Design Guide. Business Week.  By Matt Vella, February 11, 2008.   (slideshow: Green Design: Design Tips from Mother Nature).

TED Talk: 12 sustainable design ideas from nature. Janine Benyus, Filmed February 2005 at the TED Conference.

Janine Benyus: The Thought Leader Interview. Strategy+business, Amy Bernstein. Autumn 2006.

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This article from San Diego Magazine introduces biomimicry and what local companies, universities and organizations are doing in this innovative new area.

April 1, 2009
The San Diego Zoo has partnered with the City of San Diego, the Biomimicry Institute, University of California San Diego, Point Loma Nazarene University and San Diego State University to organize the region’s first biomimicry conference on October 2, 2009! Featured speakers include:
—Janine Benyus, author of Biomimicry, and co-founder of the Biomimicry Guild and the Biomimicry Institute.  Ms. Benyus recently won a 2009 Champions of the Earth Award presented by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). 
—Jay Harman, founder and CEO of PAX Scientific, a leading innovative research and design firm that uses biomimicry to create energy-efficient industrial equipment.  PAX Scientific recently received funding from Khosla Ventures to build high-efficiency heating and air conditioning systems, turbines, marine propulsion, and aerospace technologies, among other applications.
For more information, click here.

March 26, 2009
“When people think of art, they think of the Louvre. When people think of nature-inspired designs and solutions, they think of San Diego.  At least, that’s what local enthusiasts hope to achieve in the next several years.”  Read more…

February 10th, 2009

Jon Prange, Venture Business Manager at the San Diego Zoo, spoke at Hallmark’s corporate offices in Kansas City.  The Zoo recognizes the dilemma that comes from a growing economy based on the consumption of natural resources and the threat to biodiversity that comes with loss of habitat.  Biomimicry offers the opportunity to transform the economy with innovative ideas learned from nature.  This could be a win-win for the economy and the planet.

December 5, 2008
On December 5, the San Diego Zoo was featured on a General Electric Innovation Webcast.  The Webcast was sponsored by Patia McGrath, General Electric (GE) global director of innovation, and was broadcast around the globe to all GE businesses and each Global Research Center hub.

”We are at a critical point in time where the world needs new product designs, processes, and ideas for innovation that are sustainable “green” solutions.  Nature has been coming up with sustainable solutions for billions of years and there is much we can learn from nature.  The San Diego Zoo is a place where nature’s solutions reside.  The San Diego Zoo is working to save endangered species. Nature has the answers needed to save the habitat needed to save the species.”

October 22, 2008
A major component of Bioneers is the field of biomimicry. Janine Benyus was a keynote speaker, there was a full-day intensive on the subject, and several workshops. And so it was necessary for the leaders in biomimicry to be present. They were.

The San Diego Zoo was represented at Bioneers and I was able to speak with Jon Prange, Venture Business Manager, about the Zoo’s role in biomimicry.

The city of San Diego is striving to be a leader in biotechnology, and sitting at their doorstep is a perfect place to study the world’s flora and fauna—the San Diego Zoo. The Zoo recognized its key role and has actively embraced being part of the research. As Prange mentioned, there are three major bonuses for being involved.  Read more…

October 1, 2008
The City of San Diego has partnered with the San Diego Zoo to promote biomimicry education and awareness.  The primary goal of the partnership is to establish San Diego as the nation’s hub for biomimicry research & development, education and commercialization.  The City is known for its strong life science, high tech, defense sectors and is poised to become a leader in the development and commercialization of clean technologies.  The City is committed to provide support for the development of biomimicry in San Diego and will continue to work with community based organzations, local universities and the business community to make this goal a reality.

August 13, 2008
The San Diego Zoo has a threefold mission of recreation, conservation, and eduation. Jump Associates, which specializes in helping companies discover new opportunities for growth, is helping the San Diego Zoo clarify how to best meet its conservation mission. At our first session, the Zoo envisioned what conservation will look like in five years, which includes integrating nature with industry and our lifestyle and what role the San Diego Zoo can play in this changing landscape.

August 13, 2008
The San Diego Zoo has a threefold mission of recreation, conservation, and eduation. Jump Associates, which specializes in helping companies discover new opportunities for growth, is helping the San Diego Zoo clarify how to best meet its conservation mission. At our first session, the Zoo envisioned what conservation will look like in five years, which includes integrating nature with industry and our lifestyle and what role the San Diego Zoo can play in this changing landscape.

KPBS interview with Paula Brock, Chief Financial Officer of the San Diego Zoo
June 24, 2008
“Even if you’ve never heard of biomimicry, you no doubt have heard of Velcro. Velcro was inspired by nature. A Swiss chemist copied the way cockleburs clung to his dog’s furry coat, and voila: Velco. That’s biomimicry, copying nature to create products and services that are useful to humans.
Today, scientists and engineers are exploring how to create everything from desert water collecting devices to fly-sized rescue robots, all inspired by nature’s exquisite designs. The vision of biomimicry goes beyond just building useful stuff. It also seeks to learn how nature manages to use the environment in a sustainable manner. In fact, biomimicry inspires a kind of ecological utopia. As one writer puts it, if we copy nature correctly, we create a world that runs on sunlight, using only the energy it needs; a world in which form follows function and everything is recycled.” To hear this interview, click here…

July 23–24, 2008
Chip Heath, bestselling author of Made to Stick and professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business, spent two days with leaders of the San Diego Zoo. The goal was to develop a vision and strategy for biomimicry at the Zoo. From the cure for diabetes (derived from the gila monster’s saliva) to tape that can be used and reused without getting dirty (based on the gecko’s footpad), biomimicry makes nature relevant to corporations and new innovation. Nature also teaches us about design processes that are completely sustainable— where the waste from one product fuels the production of another. Professor Heath helped crystallize the Zoo’s strategic vision for how to bring biomimicry into the corporate and educational communities, to inspire new inventions and teach about sustainable manufacturing and design processes.

“Copycat, and They’re Fine with That” by Eric Wolff, San Diego CityBeat
July 8, 2008
“By helping companies mimic nature, the San Diego Zoo wants to do well by doing good… [Biomimicry is] the notion that nature can provide answers to many of our most pressing problems and do it in a sustainable way. The Zoo is in the process of establishing a biomimicry unit, which would connect educational institutions and companies with the Zoo’s vast collection of plants and animals, along with the Zoo’s expertise. It’s early yet, but Zoo Chief Financial Officer Paula Brock sees biomimicry as both a way to help the world move toward a greener future and bring a different kind of green into the Zoo’s coffers. It has the potential to transform industry.” Read more…

June 24, 2008 www.ewire.com
The San Diego Zoo and the City of San Diego sponsored an industry event at the Zoo featuring the Biomimicry Guild. The Guild introduced the discipline of biomimicry to an audience of over 450 educators, research scientists, engineers, biotech firms, and community members. Biomimicry is a core component of the advancement and expansion of the cleantech industry. Dayna Baumeister, co-founder of the Biomimicry Guild, provided an overview of present-day applications of biomimicry including super-efficient wind turbines modeled on the fins of humpback whales, wetsuits worn by Olympic athletes that imitate the texture of sharkskin, and antibiotics that do not result in resistant bacteria, based on the defenses used by red seaweed. “Throughout its more than 90-year history, the San Diego Zoo has taken a leadership role in the conservation of endangered species and their habitats,” said Brock.

January, 2008
In September, 2007, Paula Brock, CFO of the San Diego Zoo, and Allison Alberts, Director of CRES, met with Janine Benyus and Dayna Baumeister of the Biomimicry Guild to discuss the emerging field of biomimicry. They agreed that biomimicry has the potential to transform industry and save nature and entered into a collaborative partnership to build biomimicry education and services for the betterment of global conservation efforts.