The 2002 book,Biomimicry,describes a new science

that studies nature’s best ideas and then imitates

these designs and processes to provide innovative
and sustainable solutions for industry and research
development.Author and international expert,
Janine Benyus,is now focusing on working with
industry and governments across the globe to
implement her ideas.She will be touring Australia
with the team from The Natural Edge Project in May. Peter Nguyen

Innovation inspired by nature

Biomimicry
Janine Benyus believes that by treating 1. Nature runs on sunlight
nature as ‘model, measure and mentor’, 2. Nature uses only the energy it needs
Australian companies, governments and 3. Nature fits form to function
universities are in a strong position to take 4. Nature recycles everything
advantage of the leading edge opportuni- 5. Nature rewards cooperation
ties provided by the emerging field of what 6. Nature banks on diversity
she has coined ‘biomimicry’. 7. Nature demands local expertise
The idea is that, during its 3.8 billion
8. Nature curbs excesses from within
years of research and development, nature
9. Nature taps the power of limits.
has evolved highly efficient systems and
processes that can inform solutions to As a biologist, the question for Benyus is
many of the waste, resource efficiency and not whether our technology is natural, but
management problems that we now how well adapted it is to life on Earth over
grapple with today. the long term. She says that engineers,
Biomimicry has already provided some scientists, architects and designers are often
timely, standout innovations in areas such humbled, and then excited, when they working with Benyus had been a pivotal
energy engineering, and waste reuse, where discover how nature already has solutions event for his organisation. ‘We were
multiple-scale efficiency improvements are to their challenges, and how it generally immersed in a sea of information, strategies,
greatly needed. ‘Over the millions of years, outperforms their traditional solutions, science and insight and left with a strong
nature’s life forms through natural selec- showing them creative alternatives. ‘Nature commitment for a far wider discovery and
tion have had to live with the constraints of knows what works, what is appropriate, education of these ideas across the firm.’
the entropy law on a solar budget,’ reflects and what lasts here on Earth.’ In order to meet the needs of businesses
Wes Jackson, noted author and President As co-founder of the Biomimicry Guild, striving for sustainability, the team from
of The Land Institute, Kansas, US, a body Benyus has assisted the engineering, archi- the Biomimicry Guild focus on cultivating
that promotes natural agricultural systems. tectural and scientific professions as well as the transfer and application of biological
Biomimicry’s application is predicted major international corporations, such as knowledge to the business community,
across many sectors as the great potential carpet company Interface, global architects evolving the best model for integrating this
for improved performance is realised. HOK, Proctor & Gamble and Nike, to learn knowledge with business, and creating
Benyus’s book1 sets out that there are from nature’s designs how to develop truly strategies for monitoring successful
nine basic laws underpinning the concept sustainable solutions. 1 Benyus JM (2002). Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature.
of biomimicry: Bill Valentine, HOK’s President said Perennial, New York.

129 | FEB – MAR | 2006 ECOS 27

 INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY

P r o g r e s s
‘Janine Benyus is without Biomimicry applied
question the world’s most
Passive cooling in buildings
imaginative person in the field The Eastgate Complex, located in Harare,
of environmental development Zimbabwe, is a 324 000 square-foot
commercial office and shopping complex
and restoration.Time spent with which includes two nine-storey office build-
Janine is a transmission of hope ings and a glazed atrium. In Zimbabwe’s
extremely hot climate, the building’s primary
about what we can learn from cooling method is natural ventilation.
and be within nature.’ Engineers from firm Arup, led by Mick
Paul Hawken, Natural Capital Institute Pearce, sought inspiration for the ventilation
design from termite mounds since termites
require their home to remain at an exact
temperature of 87°F (30.5°C) throughout a
24-hour daily temperature range of between
35°F at night and 104°F during the day (1.6°C
progress. An educator at heart, she believes
to 40°C).1 The solution was a passive-cooling
that the better people understand the
structure with specially designed hooded
genius of the natural world, the more they Termite mounds are marvellously windows, variable thickness walls and light
will want to protect it. engineered for internal temperature coloured paints to reduce heat absorption.
Many biomimicry success stories exist consistency. Janine Bolliger
across a number of technological fronts
Velcro
where they are providing new and sustain-
In the 1940s, Swiss inventor George de
able solutions. Examples of these are the
Mestral found that, upon returning home for
invention of Velcro fastening from study-
a walk with his dog one day, his pants and
ing cockleburs, the design of the Japanese
the canine’s fur were covered with cockle-
Shinkansen bullet train nosecone, based on
burs. He studied the burs under a micro-
the beak of a kingfisher bird, the ventilated
scope, observing their natural hook-like
design of Harare’s Eastgate Complex and
shape, which ultimately led to the design of
the design of gecko tape which mimics the
the popular adhesive material, Velcro. Velcro
surface of gecko lizards’ feet (see box).
is a two-sided fastener – one side with stiff
According to Jonathon Porritt, of the
‘hooks’ like the burrs and the other side with
UK sustainability charity, Forum for the
the soft ‘loops’ like the fabric of his pants.The
Future, Biomimicry is ‘one of those rare
result was VELCRO® brand hook and loop
hopeful notes in the modern chorus of
A scanning electron microscope image of fasteners, named for the French words
environmental warnings. Benyus offers a
Velcro’s hooks and loops (370 micron view). ‘velour’ and ‘crochet’.2
radical alternative to today’s industrial Phillips Exeter Academy

model of progress – an elegant survival

Self-cleaning paints
strategy drawn from a better understand-
Germany company, Sto AG, have developed
ing of those natural systems on which we
a biomimicry inspired exterior coating with a
are still totally dependent. Perhaps the best
water-repellant surface based on that of the
thing about this quest for innovation
lotus leaf. Professor Wilhem Barthlott, from
inspired by nature is that it is more than
the University of Bonn in Germany, devel-
just a theory. It is already underway.’
• Karlson ‘Charlie’ Hargroves and Michael
H Smith, The Natural Edge Project.
oped the surface after looking for environ-
mentally benign alternatives to toxic
cleaning detergents in order to reduce envi-
Janine Benyus will be delivering the Keynote ronmental impacts. He asked the question
at the joint dinner for the Australian ‘How does nature clean surfaces?’ It became
Business Leaders Forum for Sustainable obvious that nature doesn’t use detergents
Development and the Queensland EPA at all – instead it designs self-cleaning
Sustainable Industries Award in Melbourne surfaces with hydrophobic properties.3
on 15 May and will then set off on a two- The hydrophobic surface structure of the
week tour of the country engaging with lotus leaf became the inspiration for a new
various companies, government agencies, kind of self-cleaning paint. Feng Yu
organisations and institutions in partnership
with The Natural Edge Project. For enquires 1 Summary of learning points taken from Rocky Mountain Institute’s Green Developments 2.0 CD-Rom (companion to Wilson A, Seal JL,
McManigal LA, Lovins LH, Cureton M and Browning WD (1998). Green Development: Integrating Ecology and Real Estate. John Wiley &
about Janine Benyus’ tour and engagements Sons, New York). Case study also available from Hargroves K and Smith MH (2005). Chapter 18: Greening the built environment. In The
visit www.naturaledgeproject.net/ Natural Advantage of Nations: Business Opportunities, Innovation and Governance in the 21st Century. pp. 368–370. Earthscan, London.
2 Velcro Industries, N.V. www.velcro.com.
BenyusTour06.aspx.

28 ECOS 129 | FEB – MAR | 2006

 The design features of Japan’s Shinkansen 500-Series exemplifies biomimicry in action. Its overhead pantograph sports serrations
were modeled on the design of owl plumage to reduce air resistance noise, and the air piercing nose cone design was inspired by the
kingfisher’s beak. From the Swiss–Japan Assoc. for Engineers and Scientists.

Transport aerodynamics Other birds do not have these feathers.These Gecko tape
The 500-Series Shinkansen Japanese bullet saw-toothed wave feathers are called ‘serra- Scientists at the University of Manchester
train running between Tokyo and Hakata is tion feathers’ and they generate small have developed a new type of adhesive,
one of the fastest trains in the world.The vortexes in the airflow that then break up the which mimics the mechanism employed by
challenge for the design of the Shinkansen larger vortexes that produce noise. It took the gecko lizard to walk on surfaces, includ-
was to make it run quietly at high speed. four years of strenuous effort by the younger ing glass ceilings.The new adhesive (‘gecko
Learning that the owl family is the most engineers on the team to practically apply tape’) contains billions of tiny plastic fibres,
silent and stealthy fliers of all birds, the this principle. Finally,‘serrations’ were less than a micrometer in diameter, which are
Shinkansen design team discovered the inscribed on main part of the pantograph similar to natural hairs covering the soles of
bird’s secret in its wing plumage design – (the collectors that receive electricity from the gecko’s feet which generate elecrodynamic
many small saw-toothed feathers protrude overhead wires), and this succeeded in reduc- adhesion at a microscopic level.2, 3 One
from the outer rim of their primary feathers. ing noise enough to meet the world’s strictest square centimetre of gecko tape could
standards.This technology is now called a support a weight of one kilogram. In addition
‘vortex generator’, and it has already been to a general adhesive, it can be used to move
applied to aircraft and is now being applied computer chips in a vacuum and pick up
to the caps and boots of professional skaters. small fibres.The tape can be used several
Another problem to be overcome was the times over and does not use toxic chemicals
low-level sonic booms occurring from tunnel found in common adhesives.4
exiting. Again, looking to nature for a solution
to the sudden changes in air resistance, the
design team discovered that the kingfisher
bird’s specially designed beak enables it to
dive from air to water (low- to high-resist-
ance mediums respectively) with minimal
energy loss. Computer modeling techniques
used to determine what style of nose for the
Shinkansen revealed the kingfisher beak to
be the most ideal shape.1 Note that the lights
on the front of the train mimic the nostrils of
Geckos’ feet pads have given up their secret. the bird.
Chartchai Meesangnin

1 Japan For Sustainability, Biomimicry, Series No 6, ‘Shinkansen technology learned from an owl? – The story of Eiji Nakatsu’
(hwww.japanfs.org/en/newsletter/200503.html#3). A scanning electron micrograph of micro-
2 Article sourced from the University of Manchester News Centre, Spiderman becomes a reality at the University of Manchester.
3 Technical paper on gecko tape: Geim AK et al (2003). Microfabricated adhesive mimicking gecko foot hair. fabricated polyimide hairs like those
www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn3785 employed on gecko tape. Scale bar is 2 µm.
4 ibid. Courtesty AM Geim.

129 | FEB – MAR | 2006 ECOS 29