Biomimicry as a Blueprint for Sustainable Innovation – Alistair Daynes, MD of Learn Biomimicry

One of the, one of the best solutions to solving the real crises that we have, from climate change to ecological restoration, to a number of other problems, and I think, you know, the best way out of a problem is really to innovate, and that at the core is what biomimicry is about. I think when we are looking at sustainability and the sustainability challenges, what's so unique about biomimicry is that it puts life in the center.

Welcome to Rethink What Matters, the podcast dedicated to aligning the economy and ecology with everyone for improved business performance. Stronger families and a greener, cooler planet. And today I'm joined by Alistair Daines, MD, at Learn Biomimicry and co-founder of Rewild Africa in Cape Town, South Africa. And we're going to be discussing biomimicry. Perhaps if we could just start off with, if you could please tell us what biomimicry is. First, please, and then a little bit more about Rewild Africa and obviously Learn Biomimicry.

Sure. So, Paul, biomimicry is this incredibly fascinating practice that looks to mimic or copy nature's genius and apply it to our human designs. So, you know, you might have heard about biophilia, which really looks at making things look like nature or making use of natural materials. Biomimicry goes a step further and makes our human designs function like nature. So what's quite interesting there is things might not necessarily look exactly like nature, but if it functions like nature, it is a great deal closer to sustainability or possibly even regenerative new ways, as well as it's innovations that are hiding in plain sight. And so what we term biomimicry is really nature-inspired innovations.

I would ask you just to tell us a little bit more about Rewild Africa.

Back in 2016, Rewild was on its founding adventure where we were set out to map 180 different hiking trails using this camera called Gary, Gary the Google Trekker. And we were mapping these hiking trails in all of South Africa's national parks. And it was this incredible journey and one which sparked Rewild Africa. And the, the general thesis between Sam Shev and, and I was really to find solutions to ecological restoration. We're incredibly passionate about the environment and about solving the, the crisis that we're seeing with our biodiversity today. And so, much like a mini thesis, we went out and and researched and met with some incredible examples. And along the way, this is what spawned Rewild. So today, Rewild aims to find and shine the light on solutions to ecological restoration. We focus primarily on films, documentaries, and short stories, and work with an incredible bunch of organizations across Southern Africa as well as internationally.

And what's been your personal journey that's brought you to biomimicry?

Great. Yeah. So along this way of finding solutions to ecological restoration, we came across biomimicry, Sam and I, uh, and we met with this incredible ecological angel, Claire Janus, based in this beautiful part in the Midlands. Of all the solutions that we found on this journey, you know, biomimicry really stands out as one of the, one of the best solutions to solving the, the real crises that we have, from climate change to ecological restoration, um, to a number of other problems. And I think, you know, the best way out of a problem is really to innovate, and that at the core is what biomimicry is about. I think when we looking at sustainability and the sustainability challenges. What's so unique about biomimicry is that it puts life in the center, and that's one of the things that I think is so missing in today's world. We haven't really focused on putting life in or considering life as a, as a design or parameter. It's usually this afterthought where, say, you might have a EIA assessment, and then after this assessment, you say, okay, you know, we've done the environmental assessment. Now, how do we mitigate for life or for the biodiversity here? Instead of, you know, starting from the beginning and saying, let's consider life from the get-go and let's create conditions conducive to life.

I think it's such a great idea, such a great concept. Certainly something which has been missing, as you say, and fits very well with regeneration, which is the focus of the Waterloo. Could you tell us a little bit then about Learn Biomimicry?

Yeah, sure. So Learn Biomimicry began with Claire Janis and Jesper Linna. Today the organization stands to find ways to make biomimicry accessible, affordable, and applicable. And so I'll start with the applicable side. Biomimicry is an incredibly complex field, much like nature, and it's really one where I think practice trumps theory. You know, we, we at Learn Biomimicry don't necessarily believe in too much theory, but rather practice. And we consider ourselves not a university, but a technikon, a place where you really are there to put it into practice. And that's what biomimicry really is. So, you know, much like yoga or meditation, the more you do it, the better you get. And that's really the essence of a practice. And so when we're learning from nature, it can be initially a little bit hard to build that muscle, but once you get going, it really becomes second nature. The other two aspects, making it affordable and accessible, um, were achieved through Learn Biomimicry's focus on purely being online. So this allows us to really ensure that the costs are not exorbitant and anyone around the world can access a biomimicry course or become a biomimicry practitioner, um, in the, in their part of the world.

Okay. And who are the customers for Learn Biomimicry? What, uh, what sort of disciplines do they come from?

Biomimicry is really well suited for those who wish to seek and create change in the world. And so that can range from designers, engineers, architects, educators, um, as well as business professionals and business consultants and leaders who are willing to push their organizations to innovate.

And are you talking about both form and function then, in the way that biomimicry is applied?

Yes. Yeah, that's correct. I, so biomimicry at the form level can really take on something which we can easily relate to or see some comparative look that nature has. At the process or at the system level, it gets a little bit more grainy and it might be harder to see the function necessarily. What's quite interesting here is if you look at a kid when they're learning from, say, the age of 4, they are really good at nouns. You know, they can call out things like computer or leaf or tree or mountain. But along their learning journey themselves, they start to use the word the verbs, the doing words, the function. And that's really where it gets a little bit more complex. And I think at a more global level, that's really where we are today. Only recently has biomimicry come to the forefront, uh, in this Cambrian explosion of biomimicry.

What is the history of biomimicry then? Who coined the term first?

The history of biomimicry is It's fascinating, Paul. It's an emerging discipline of an ancient practice. It has been around for many, many years and found within a majority of indigenous cultures. But at some point, we just forgot for some reason. And that innate practice, we lost it somewhere in between the agricultural, industrial, and scientific revolutions. And so, you know, you might ask, how did that happen? And how is it that biomimicry would emerge once again? So if we look back to the 15th century, we had Leonardo da Vinci create an incredible flying machine. And I think this is one of the earliest examples of biomimicry. It was a spark of the emergence of the early biomimicry innovators. Fast forward to the late or mid-20th century, and we then saw the emergence of modern biomimicry. That was where it was first termed and then later popularized by Janine Benyus. She wrote a book, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, in 1997. A little bit after that, we then for the professionalization of biomimicry. So you could actually go and study it more formally at a university.

If we could perhaps talk about a few examples then, some case studies, just to bring this to life for people.

Biomimicry at its heart is innovation and innovation inspired by nature. One great example, which I know you are incredibly passionate about, is agriculture. So in today's world, we're seeing about 40% of food being lost along its journey on the cold chain to going off, essentially. And an incredible organization called GreenPod Labs based in India has really taken this on and used biomimicry to come up with an ingenious solution by asking, what would nature do? So when we look to solve for our fruits and vegetables going off, there are two main drivers to consider: the microbial growth and the actual ripening of the fruit itself. And so GreenPods studied plants and their defensive mechanisms and mimicked that into sachet that you put into a, a box of fruit, and that reduces the ripening and microbial growth and extends the life of our fruit and vegetables. An incredible way to reduce our need on cold chain storage, as well as hopefully keep our vegetables and our fruit fresher for longer.

I know that in nature there is no such thing as waste. You know, everything decays and becomes food for another organism. but we don't have that, do we? We— that isn't something which we've created in the 20th century. We create a lot of waste and that becomes toxic and that destroys the environment. So does that— is that an important part of biomimicry then?

Most definitely. You know, if we were to look at a forest, there is no unemployment in a forest. There's no waste. It's completely cyclical. And what's more, it's generous by design. And I think that if we can mimic that in our cities, in our products and within our services, we can really rethink the way in which society shows up to support life. Additionally, I think a lot of the mistakes that have been made previously is on this progression that's happened so fast, ecologically speaking or geologically speaking. One of the key points that we've overlooked is green chemistry, and this is where it gets really quite technical quite quickly. But, you know, the chemical engineers and our chemists play a critical role in ensuring that whatever is created at the molecular level, it can degrade appropriately. I think there's been this lack of green chemistry in Only now recently are we seeing the emergence of that life-friendly chemistry. And this is essentially the building blocks of biology and very much the building blocks of biomimicry is ensuring that we have green chemistry at, not in the hands or making everyone aware, but just specifically, you know, those chemical engineers and those chemists or those business owners and business leaders to ensure that it's prioritized as a, as a key spend on the, the R&D budget.

So you've got chemists, uh, who are taking your courses. Are there landscape architects and what other disciplines are taking your courses on Learn Biome?

There's an eclectic bunch that have enrolled in to become biomimicry practitioners and biomimicry educators. We've seen individuals who are product designers from very large bicycle manufacturing companies through to architects, landscape designers, as well as business leaders who are looking to put nature-inspired innovation at the forefront of what their organization is about. We've had chemical engineers come through. We've had biologists. It's a crazy cool bunch of really inspiring individuals that have applied the genius of nature to their respective fields. Generally speaking, we see a large amount of designers, engineers, architects, and educators, as well as passionate business consultants.

I'm just wondering, which areas are— get the most focus then, do you think, with biomimicry?

Recent research has suggested that the built environment probably has the most amount to gain from biomimicry. It's not to say that it is the only field, but generally speaking, there's a lot of development, and there's a lot of space for innovation, especially in a space that is context-specific to a specific place. So making designs that are locally attuned and responsive. Innovations such as software development is also another incredibly large and fast-moving field. Replicating or mimicking evolution in algorithms is something that we're seeing more and more of. Generative design is one such example of this. And so AutoCAD has recently come out with a number of software developments that is generative design. So these designs really look exactly like nature. It's kind of like a bone structure that you would imagine. And it really is a great force diagram.

And it seems that biomimicry and AI are made for each other.

Yeah, very much so. Artificial intelligence at its core is biomimicry.

It seems that, you know, it could also help with energy, maybe energy efficiency in the way that we convert one type of energy into another, perhaps solar panels, maybe in the way that that gets converted into you know, some form of storable, some form of storable energy, because nature is always storing energy, isn't it? All this, all this energy arrives from the sun and it gets wrapped up, it gets stored in nature. If we could somehow mimic that, that I'm sure would be, that'd be very helpful in terms of creating a more sustainable world.

100%. And just to add to that, nature is incredibly resource efficient. You can have species which can live for 200 years. And they live for 200 years because they are so resource efficient. There's very much an approach there from a circularity perspective of moving away from a take-make-waste approach of energy generation into one that is more circular and natural by design.

Yeah, is biomimicry a part of biophilic design as well?

Very much so. Biomimicry and biophilia overlap and hold hands incredibly well. Biophilia is just really at its core though about loving nature. And that's in the words of bio meaning nature and philia meaning love, where biomimicry is more focused on the function, making things function like nature. And I think that things go that biophilia and biomimicry go so well hand in hand because there's this component of biomimicry which we haven't yet spoken too much about. And that is the third seed of biomimicry. So we've got three seeds. We've got the emulate, which I think is quite easy to understand, you know, the mimicking of nature. We've got the ethos. And then lastly, we've got this reconnect. And that's understanding that we are nature. And what biophilia does so well is really bring us back to reconnecting with nature. It invites nature into our worlds. It invites nature into our offices, to our homes, and into our cities. And I, for one, just thoroughly enjoy being out in nature. It's where I get my best ideas. Um, and That combination between biophilia and biomimicry, I think, is, is one that is incredibly beautiful.

What about on the marine side of things then? Does biomimicry apply to marine life too?

It does. Biomimicry is incredibly wide and diverse. There's great innovations that are happening in the space of port construction and creating ports, and specifically the smaller parts such as the concrete blocks, making them look more like coral and function like coral, so it invites life into it. What's quite interesting with that approach to building a port, for example, is that the port becomes stronger over time. And that's this idea which we see so often in nature but so rarely in our human designs. and that is anti-fragility. So much like an arm, you know, if we go to the gym and lift some weights, even though we're breaking those muscle fibers, we come back the next day stronger. And nature does this incredibly well. Anti-fragility, things get stronger over time, unlike, say, a box of champagne glasses. You know, they're set, they're fragile, and they're not going to get any stronger than than today. So building ports, for example, that are getting stronger by having more growth on them and inviting nature into them is just a simple example of biomimicry being put into practice. A second example is concrete and the concrete of using bioconcrete. This is a little bit of a danger place where if we look at the the Romans, their concrete was incredibly strong and you can still see it today. You know, recently I was fortunate enough to visit Greece and you can still see these statues that are 2,000 years old where, you know, often in our homes you might find a crack and you would think, how is it that 2,000 years ago their concrete was stronger? What's quite interesting, the Romans had figured something out which we're only coming back to. And that is by including certain microbes within the concrete that are able to restore cracks and stop them from cracking early on. This gives it huge amounts of ability to last, say, 200 years or more, and maybe a whole lot longer.

And can you tell us a little bit about the market for biomimicry then, how you've seen that change maybe over the last 5 years?

A good leading indicator here is the number of universities that are offering courses in biomimicry, we've seen an increase that is growing potentially, I'd say at a thumbsuck, probably around 30% year on year. It's incredibly fast. Fortunately, a lot of those lecturers we're meeting with and have enrolled in our biomimicry educators program, which we assist them in building their curriculums and building and integrating biomimicry into their courses or into their universities.

Alistair, thanks very much for your time on this podcast and in helping us to better understand biomimicry and how it can help us to create a much better world in the 21st century.

Thank you, Paul. I've thoroughly enjoyed having this conversation with you and wishing you a lovely day further.