About
TheBiomimicryGroup
In order to meet the growing enthusiasm for biomimicry globally and to build the discipline, in 2010 The Biomimicry Guild and The Biomimicry Institute in the USA reorganised their company structure and operations into a new social enterprise that enables them to more effectively advance their interdependent commercial and non-profit biomimicry initiatives. At the centre of this social enterprise reorganization is a new for-profit “umbrella” company, tentatively called The Biomimicry Group, Inc. Staff from both the Guild and the Institute now work for the Group, and Janine Benyus and Dayna Baumeister continue to provide leadership for the operations. The new company recently secured an initial round of financing and has received B Corp. certification (for triple bottom line management practices). In March 2011, The Biomimicry Group launched a number of new initiatives designed to develop their capacity and to increase their “surface area”, including the regional alliance networks.
RegionalNetworks
biomimicrySA
WhatIsBiomimicry?
What Is Biomimicry?
“Bios” means life, “Mimicry” means imitate. Biomimicry is the practice of learning from and then emulating life’s genius to solve human problems and create more sustainable designs. Biomimicry is a branch of science, a problem-solving method, a sustainability ethos, a movement, a stance toward nature, and a new way of viewing and valuing biodiversity.
Why Biomimicry? Why now?
Organisms and ecosystems face the same challenges that we humans do, but they meet those challenges sustainably. The premise of biomimicry is that Life has been performing design experiments in Earth’s R&D lab for 3.85 billion years and what is flourishing on the planet today are the best ideas – those that perform well in context, while economizing on energy and materials. Whatever the 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. The selective pressure placed on all natural life forms minimizes and removes failures. Organisms are the consummate physicists, chemists, and engineers, and ecosystems are economies beyond compare. They can provide us with innovative and progressive solutions to the design, engineering and other challenges that we now face: energy, food production, climate control, benign chemistry, transportation, packaging, and more. The vision is to create products, processes, organizations, and policies—new ways of living—that are well-adapted to life on earth over the long haul. ”Doing it nature’s way” has the potential to change the way we grow food, make materials, harness energy, heal ourselves, store information, and conduct business.
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Scheduled events
The schedule below includes local workshop dates as well as dates of local presentations and network meetings.
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What We Do
As a regional hub of The Biomimicry Group, biomimicrySA promotes the study and imitation of nature’s remarkably efficient designs, bringing together scientists, engineers, architects and innovators who can use those models to create sustainable technologies. The Biomimicry Group’s process of consulting life’s genius utilises a clear, proven design methodology, complete with effective implementation tools, developed over a decade of work with companies, entrepreneurial organisations, universities, governments, and non-profits. biomimicrySA inspires, educates, enables & connects biomimics in South Africa through:
Presentations
Inspiring introductory and tailor-made biomimicry presentations for your organisation or conference. View our current schedule of presentations here or contact us to book an inspiring presentation.
Education/Training
We offer a range of workshops from 1-3day introductory workshops to week-long expedition workshops, some of which are linked with the Biomimicry Professional Pathways programs, and all adapted to local conditions. We also offer a learning journey of a series of workshops suited to your organisations needs.- Schools: For scholars and educators (including support for integrating biomimicry into relevant curricula)
- Universities: For students and educators in all disciplines (including support for integrating biomimicry into relevant departments)
- Field Guides: Tailor-made training for individual guides or through private lodges/FGASA affiliated institutions. Guides are interacting with a wide range of people every day, out in nature, and have the ideal opportunity to share the inspiration and potential of biomimicry to local and interantional visitors. Biomimicry offers an inspiring new lense for exploring the bush/beach giving guides an extra edge that their guests will love. We are in the process of developing a FGASA affiliated specialty training for guides. Contact us to find out more.
- Professionals: including designers, architects, engineers, biologists, business, etc. (Find out more in the courses and innovation sections of this website)
- General: anyone interested in learning more about biomimicry
Networking
InnovationConsulting
Research
Objectives
The strategic goals for South Africa mirror The Biomimicry Group’s global goals. While these goals are ambitious, they are founded on several years of success to date in other places. We are very excited about this work and the potential it has to contribute to the immense task we have ahead of us to address sustainability challenges. We believe biomimicry can play a key role in finding solutions.
Education & Training
Our goal is to implement biomimicry into relevant education and training curricula for schools, students (particularly in the fields of design, architecture, engineering, biology, business, field guiding) and professionals training (including the same fields as for students, as well as relevant government departments and research institutions). We also aim to implement relevant biomimicry content and informal education programs at zoos, aquariums and certain museums. The short-term objectives are to partner with key institutions and form networks with educators and professional institutions to pilot biomimicry education and training initiatives. Our long-term objectives are to enable biomimicry to be integrated into curriculum on a boader scale where feasible. We also aim to host a range of biomimicry workshops to suit a variety of audiences, to inspire and inform through public presentations and the media, as well as to support the growing biomimicry network in South Africa through local network meetings. We also connect our local networks with international biomimicry networks and aim to participate in the biomimicry conferences internationally.
Innovation
We aim to inspire and enable biomimicry innovation in South Africa and beyond, through the training we offer as well as through promoting & supporting design challenge projects. We also aim to enable meaningful biomimicry innovation in African organisations by leveraging local and international networks to undertake relevant biomimicry research and development. We also aim to leverage these networks to provide biomimicry consulting and training services to local companies and organisations to assist them in implementing biomimicry innovation.
Conservation & Sustainability
We are deeply committed to working towards creating conditions conducive to life through the work we do and through inspiring and enabling the designers of our world to use biomimicry as a way to redesign our world to be empowered by nature’s genius. Through our commitment to Innovation for Conservation and our passion for a thriving abundant world for all, we aim to use and share the empowering approach of biomimicry to assist individuals and organisations in their commitment to conservation and sustainability.
(Re)Connecting
The (re)connect aspect of biomimicry is about regaining the understanding and recognition that two “separate” identities (i.e., people and nature) are actually deeply intertwined. There is no “us” and “them.” We are nature. (Re)connecting is a practice and a mindset that explores this relationship between humans and the rest of nature. biomimicrySA aims to run a number of expedition workshops that integrate deep exploration of nature’s genius in place as part of the workshop. We also collaborate with and recommend nature-based eco-tourism opportunities here to encourage deeper reconnection experiences.
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“Bios” means life, “Mimicry” means imitate. Biomimicry is the practice of learning from and then emulating nature to solve human problems and create more sustainable designs. Energy efficient buildings inspired by termite mounds, highly efficient wind-turbines inspired by whale fins, new materials inspired by abalone shells and spider webs, and solar cells inspired by photosynthesis are examples of biomimicry happening today.
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