By Madelyn Lipszyc

Learning by observing and copying real animal strategies and nature behavior can help solve design challenges and sustainability problems. Biomimicry, a design discipline that studies the best ideas of nature and then copies them, focuses on the improvement in design of products, architecture, household necessities and more. It is about improving the ability to self-sustain, and is inspired by the wonderful ways in which nature works.

The Eastgate Centre is a shopping mall in Harare, Zimbabwe. It is modeled after the way African termites build mounds and maintain a fungus, which is their food source, at 87° F throughout the year. It was built in 1996 by architect Mick Pearce and a team of engineers. The shopping centre has no heating or air conditioning, but is kept cool by many large air ducts and vents, saving the owners $3.5 million in energy costs.

Who is behind biomimicry? It could be biologists in the design chair, or it could be architects, or anyone trying to emulate animals' natural methods and apply them to the human world. Using nature's most intricate creatures, biologists, as designers, have a plethora of scientific understanding as to how living organisms operate. By using biomimicry, they try to eliminate the need for chemicals and energy.

Biomimicry has inspired a company called Mirasol to create energy-efficient displays for phones and electronics that concentrate on principles of reflection rather than internal/mechanical projection. Mirasol produces displays that use interferometric modulation (IMOD) technology, offering "a significant reduction in power consumption as compared to other display technologies," according to their website: www.mirasoldisplays.com

The displays are micro-electric-mechanical systems, (or IMOD technology), created by using two conductive plates. Light reflects off the display screen differently depending on whether the plates are together or apart. There are a few sets of plates that through differing combinations can create a variety of colors. This process is modeled after the way light hits a peacock's feather or a butterfly's wing. Colour is created not by battery, or fuel, but by how the light reflects off the surface of the material.

Mirasol boasts products like Bluetooth stereo headsets with visual display, a G-Core mini caddy golf GPS display, and a cell phone, although not all are available yet. The displays can be seen better than normal phone displays during the daytime. The process is a big contender to be the next step in technology after LCD. It has also been used to inspire how cosmetics, paints and fabrics can be manufactured without the use of toxic chemicals, especially in self-cleaning technology.

The Biomimicry Institute, www.biomimicryinstitute.org, is a non-profit company that provides educational material, guest speakers, case studies and more. Its sister project, www.asknature.org, is an online database of nature's strategies. Both supply news, hold contests and support biomimicry in all its importance in the forward movement of sustainability.

Janine Benyus is the president of the Biomimicry Institute. She is an expert on biomimicry and has founded the Biomimicry Guild. She has spoken and written widely on biomimetics. In her book, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, published in 2002, she says, "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." According to her website www.janinebenyus.com, she is "an educator at heart, who believes that the more people learn from nature's mentors, the more they'll want to protect them." She is also hailed as an innovation consultant to give advice on nature's best thinkers for solutions.

Biomimicry is like the new industrial revolution except it is more like an effective step back. By omitting the use of energy and chemicals, biomimicry is the greatest inspiration that design and manufacturing could hope for. Animals and natural systems are here for us to emulate and learn from. Biomimicry can teach us respect for nature as well as how valuable and beautiful it is.