JANINE BENYUS and GUNTER PAULI argue that the time has come to look at nature as an inspiration for innovation
The market economy thrives on innovation. Investments in science and technology permit us to identify new ways and means of responding to consumer needs. In modern times, humanity has engaged in production and consumption systems that are not only polluting but are also beyond the carrying capacity of the ecosystems. As a result we are encroaching on the very life supporting environments on which we depend. The loss of biodiversity is well documented, and the news has not gotten better lately, on the contrary it has gotten worse.
Another way However, there is another way of looking at the same reality. The biodiversity that is surviving in nature now has the answers for how humans can make less of an impact on Earth. Whatever did not succeed in nature has turned into a fossil. What surrounds us now is the secret to thriving here on Earth. As nature incorporates the genius to meet the basic needs of all species (except one, Homo sapiens) with what is locally available. The ingenious combination of physics, chemistry and biology by species belonging to five different kingdoms (animals, plants, fungi, protista, and monera) permits the production of everything at ambient temperature and pressure. However industry has not learned nature’s clever methods and therefore uses the energy guzzling methods of the ‘heat, beat and treat’ solution.
Time has come to consider how the gecko sticks without using glue. They certainly know how to do it without the need to apply formaldehyde that releases toxic gasses for months and even years. The gecko knows how to apply the van der Waal forces better than anyone. How come birds generate colours without colour pigments? How can they do it without the need for any heavy metals, which contaminate our water and soil for years and even decades? The abalone knows how to produce ceramics in cold water with proteins and calcium carbonate, and certainly without the need for high heat used in human ceramic production process. The list goes on. At present there are more than 2,100 technologies described
Industry should realize what natural systems figured out long ago: doing less bad is still bad. Killing less is still killing. Stealing less is still stealing. By the same logic, polluting less is still polluting. There is a need for a shift in the business model that allows business to engage in a broad scheme of innovation whereby clusters of technologies proven in and by nature can be integrated into a new way of competition. This allows industry to avoid the trap we have been in all too often: the solution to one problem creates another problem.
Perhaps the most relevant area to apply this would be in the building industry. It has been documented that countries are not meeting their Kyoto target mainly due to a continuous increase in energy demand for offices and homes. There are some 100 different technologies proven by nature that could slash energy consumption by 80% over the best green building standards from termite and zebra inspired cooling and ventilation systems to nautilus-like air pumps. Better even, buildings could easily become autonomous in water and energy, as the self-sufficient hospital in Las Gaviotas, Colombia has already proven two decades ago.
Time has come not to simply learn about nature, but to actually learn from nature. Quickly we will realize that the path to sustainability has simply only just begun.
Janine Benyus is Co-founder,
the Biomimicry Guild and
Gunter Pauli is founder and director, of the
ZERI Foundation (Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives).
(1) This article is based on Gunter Pauli’s presentation at the opening session of High level Conference on Business & Biodiversity, held in Lisbon, Portugal, on 11-12 November 2007 (www.countdown2010.org/business).
(2) A selection of these technologies will be profiled in the upcoming book by Janine Benyus and Gunter Pauli, Nature’s 100 Best™, to be published in October 2008 on the occasion of the IUCN 4th World Conservation Congress.
