Designing in Harmony with Nature | Sustainable Solutions with Biomimicry #podcast

Jamie is the Director of Biomimicry at B+H Architects, an international design firm with offices around the world that offer a wide range of design services from interior design to landscape architecture. His role is to apply metaphors and strategies inspired by nature into their design work, which can be anything from healthcare to residential projects. He believes that by introducing nature's principles at the beginning of the design process, it can lead to more creative, efficient and sustainable solutions. Biomimicry involves looking at problems in a different light and exploring nature's way of solving them, as nature has been refining design for billions of years.

Chapters

0:00:00 - Biomimicry 0:02:11 - Leveraging Systems Biomimicry for Sustainable Master Planning 0:05:58 - Exploring Collaborative Design for a Sustainable Future 0:07:28 - Regenerative Practices to Benefit Nature and Humans 0:08:59 - The Need to Mature into a Respectful Relationship with Nature 0:11:05 - Fear of the Unknown 0:12:55 - Discovery and Application 0:15:24 - Innovative Technologies and Design 0:16:50 - Practical, Inexpensive Applications 0:19:14 - Material Ecology and Biomimicry 0:21:52 - The Potential of Biomimicry 0:22:42 - Biomimicry Commons 0:25:39 - Regenerative Agriculture 0:27:46 - Learning from Nature to Create a More Sustainable Future

Check out B + H Architecture’s website:

https://bharchitects.com/en/

Check out Biomimicry Commons’ website:

https://www.biomimicrycommons.com/

Find Jamie Miller on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamiemillerbiomimicry/

Check out this interview that I mention at the end of the episode:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9A1MXA3ipo

or

Audio: https://podcast.greenbusinessimpact.com/e/rewilding-canada-by-planting-forests-from-field-to-forest-project-forest-interview/?token=5b45111c225a95f6697d5963b451bf72

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Episode Transcript

(00:06):
What have we learned from it? Because it's been solving many of the problems that we face on a day-to-day basis for millions of years, and that is what my guest, Jamie Miller, who I have on the podcast today and I are going to talk about.
.333333333How do we incorporate these principles from nature into designing solutions to all sorts of problems within architecture or social corporate structures? Biomimicry has so much potential to be applied everywhere. 4 00:00:34,798.333333333 --> 00:00:40,168.333333333 So make sure you don't miss out on a single second of this eye-opening episode. 5 00:01:16,122.823129252 --> 00:01:21,832.823129252 jamie, do you mind telling us a bit about BH Architects and what you guys do? Sure. 6 00:01:21,832.823129252 --> 00:01:24,802.823129252 So B plus H Architects is an international design firm. 7 00:01:24,817.823129252 --> 00:01:26,227.823129252 We have offices around the world. 8 00:01:26,287.823129252 --> 00:01:32,912.823129252 We do interior design, architecture, landscape master planning, landscape architecture, and something called advanced strategy. 9 00:01:32,912.823129252 --> 00:01:34,472.823129252 So it's a wired range of design. 10 00:01:34,517.823129252 --> 00:01:43,592.82312925 Studios and like I said, we work in multiple countries and on multiple projects, whether it's healthcare, residential, commercial we do pretty wide range of design work. 11 00:01:43,602.82312925 --> 00:01:44,112.82312925 That's awesome. 12 00:01:44,112.82312925 --> 00:01:49,817.82312925 And what you personally do inside of b plus H? Yeah my title is the director of biomimicry. 13 00:01:49,847.82312925 --> 00:01:58,502.82312925 I'm the first director of biomimicry, I think, in the world in architecture, so B plus H and our parent company, Savannah, Jerome, are real pioneers in this field. 14 00:01:58,502.82312925 --> 00:02:03,762.82312925 My role is to bring biomimicry to those suite of services that I mentioned helping. 15 00:02:03,772.82312925 --> 00:02:11,272.82312925 Apply metaphors and strategies inspired by nature into the design that we do, whether it's master planning and architecture interiors. 16 00:02:11,277.82312925 --> 00:02:17,577.82312925 I look to the genius of nature to try and make more efficient or more creative or more sustainable strategies for our designers. 17 00:02:17,587.82312925 --> 00:02:18,277.82312925 That's That's awesome. 18 00:02:18,637.82312925 --> 00:02:23,462.82312925 And so how does bio midwifery come into this design process as. 19 00:02:23,472.82312925 --> 00:02:25,542.82312925 If I can, I'd like to do it at the very beginning. 20 00:02:25,602.82312925 --> 00:02:41,822.82312925 What I find is that as we're uncovering what problems we're trying to solve, which designs we're trying to achieve right at the beginning, if we could bring in nature's metaphors and nature's principles, It seems to have a greater response in terms of the direction that we're gonna go in that design. 21 00:02:41,832.82312925 --> 00:02:51,82.82312925 If I come in later past conceptual design in more detailed design, it becomes much more difficult for me to bring in metaphors because the concept is already set, the mindset is already set. 22 00:02:51,87.82312925 --> 00:02:57,727.82312925 What's exciting about biomimicry is that it invites us to explore, A set of principles that are often different than the ones that we're used to. 23 00:02:57,737.82312925 --> 00:03:04,247.82312925 So having it come in at the early stages allows the whole team, even the clients, to engage in this different way of thinking. 24 00:03:04,252.82312925 --> 00:03:11,262.82312925 Looking at strategies, looking at problems in a different light, and diving into this exploration of nature's way of solving those problems. 25 00:03:11,552.82312925 --> 00:03:16,62.82312925 The idea with biomimicry is that nature's been refining design for billions of years. 26 00:03:16,422.82312925 --> 00:03:19,552.82312925 And they're often solving very similar problems that we face. 27 00:03:19,562.82312925 --> 00:03:27,932.82312925 And so if we can learn from those time tested ideas and those strategies, we might come up with, like I said, more creative, efficient, and sustainable solutions. 28 00:03:27,937.82312925 --> 00:03:28,927.82312925 I completely agree. 29 00:03:29,117.82312925 --> 00:03:34,97.82312925 Can you give us an example of something that you've been able to implement in a recent project? Sure. 30 00:03:34,97.82312925 --> 00:03:36,917.82312925 So a lot of my time last year is focused on master planning. 31 00:03:36,927.82312925 --> 00:03:52,322.82312925 And the reason I focus on master planning is because I believe that the most, cost effective way for us as a species to mitigate climate change is to let nature be, to learn how to design within it, or to learn how to let nature into our communities, into our master plans, into our urban environments. 32 00:03:52,706.15646259 --> 00:03:55,906.15646259 So there it's more of something called systems biomimicry. 33 00:03:55,916.15646259 --> 00:03:59,616.15646259 And what I mean by that is, there's three levels of biomimicry copying nature's form. 34 00:03:59,626.15646259 --> 00:04:03,16.15646259 Copying nature's processes and copying nature's systems. 35 00:04:03,26.15646259 --> 00:04:05,216.15646259 To give you an example, this is copying nature's form. 36 00:04:05,276.15646259 --> 00:04:11,796.15646259 It's an impella that looks like that spiral you'll see in seashells in sunflower seed packaging. 37 00:04:11,806.15646259 --> 00:04:23,996.15646259 Copying the shape has made an impella that is much more efficient at mixing fluids, but at the systems level, it's more about reframing our context of human nature, interrelationships or interactions. 38 00:04:24,6.15646259 --> 00:04:36,161.15646258 So this is a bit of a philosophical dive, but for hundreds of years we've been designing and I say we as a generalization, but the majority of our urban designs are based on this assumption that humans are separate from nature. 39 00:04:36,171.15646258 --> 00:04:37,681.15646258 You can see that in how we build cities. 40 00:04:38,207.82312925 --> 00:04:40,487.82312925 Any nature that comes in is very engineered. 41 00:04:40,547.82312925 --> 00:04:41,387.82312925 It's manicured. 42 00:04:41,687.82312925 --> 00:04:43,307.82312925 It's resisted, it's cut down. 43 00:04:43,407.82312925 --> 00:04:45,47.82312925 It's thrown pesticides on it. 44 00:04:45,57.82312925 --> 00:04:47,972.82312925 Another assumption is that, nature exists for human consumption. 45 00:04:48,62.82312925 --> 00:04:49,742.82312925 And again, that in how we manufacture. 46 00:04:49,802.82312925 --> 00:04:52,142.82312925 We use nature as a resource. 47 00:04:52,142.82312925 --> 00:04:57,122.82312925 We extract it and we use it for lumber materials to build our cities. 48 00:04:57,132.82312925 --> 00:05:01,507.82312925 And then another assumption is that We design in an effort to resist nature. 49 00:05:01,597.82312925 --> 00:05:04,987.82312925 So we build robust communities, we fight hundred year storm events. 50 00:05:04,987.82312925 --> 00:05:09,557.82312925 We want static interior temperatures and climate control. 51 00:05:09,567.82312925 --> 00:05:13,17.82312925 So these assumptions have made us very different from the rest of the natural world. 52 00:05:13,27.82312925 --> 00:05:24,472.82312925 So at a systems level, biomimicry, what I'm trying to do is shift those lenses and say, okay, how does nature become a part of our design strategy? And the way that we do this practically is the first step we do in our master plans is ask. 53 00:05:24,482.82312925 --> 00:05:39,242.82312925 What does nature wanna do? What will nature support us in doing and what will nature permit us to do on this landscape? If we were to not step foot on this land, where would nature go? And if we know that, if we can understand that, then we can place infrastructure and designs in a more strategic way. 54 00:05:39,242.82312925 --> 00:05:43,172.82312925 We can put things where nature's not gonna fight us and we're not gonna fight nature. 55 00:05:43,182.82312925 --> 00:05:45,852.82312925 We could leverage the existing ecological services. 56 00:05:45,852.82312925 --> 00:05:51,624.48979592 Nature's sequestering carbon, it's managing storm events, it's creating soils in agriculture. 57 00:05:51,664.48979592 --> 00:05:53,144.48979592 So we wanna leverage that. 58 00:05:53,154.48979592 --> 00:05:57,244.48979592 So the master planning strategy that we use is, Called the living story of the place. 59 00:05:57,304.48979592 --> 00:06:00,874.48979592 And we start by understanding and mapping those things that I mentioned. 60 00:06:00,874.48979592 --> 00:06:08,444.48979592 What does the land wanna do? What will it support us in doing, and what will it permit us to do? And we do that in an effort to save costs and to improve resilience. 61 00:06:08,474.48979592 --> 00:06:11,904.48979592 As I said, our key phrases, it's expensive to fight nature. 62 00:06:12,317.82312925 --> 00:06:18,444.48979592 And so within this methodology, we believe that, we are a part of nature, humans and our designs. 63 00:06:18,454.48979592 --> 00:06:24,304.48979592 We go beyond this idea of trying to do less harm and we design systems that are a contribution to their place. 64 00:06:24,304.48979592 --> 00:06:27,39.48979592 We believe that humans and nature are, not separate. 65 00:06:27,399.48979592 --> 00:06:29,19.48979592 And we don't try and fight nature. 66 00:06:29,79.48979592 --> 00:06:32,379.48979592 Like I mentioned, we try to work with nature harmonically. 67 00:06:32,389.48979592 --> 00:06:41,232.15646258 And then the other assumption I mentioned is we don't see human nature as something to consume for material resources, but instead we see it as something that could teach us. 68 00:06:41,242.15646258 --> 00:06:47,782.15646258 So in our master planning, it's that systems biomimicry where we're adopting new assumptions for how humans and nature can interact. 69 00:06:47,782.15646258 --> 00:06:54,242.15646258 And the intention is to build harmonic systems so that nature and our designs work together, work collaboratively. 70 00:06:54,252.15646258 --> 00:06:58,577.15646258 And I guess the last thing I'll say is, we believe beyond this idea that, That we're a bad species. 71 00:06:58,577.15646258 --> 00:07:02,547.15646258 So a lot of people designed to do less harm, and our idea is not to design for less harm. 72 00:07:02,547.15646258 --> 00:07:07,107.15646258 It's designed to be a contribution because our breath feeds the trees, our bodies feed the soil. 73 00:07:07,287.15646258 --> 00:07:14,67.15646258 What if our buildings could feed the ecosystem? So we're always in the mindset that humans are a part of our natural environment, and so are our designs. 74 00:07:14,500.48979592 --> 00:07:18,250.48979592 How do we design in a way that can support that? Wow, that. 75 00:07:18,260.48979592 --> 00:07:19,580.48979592 I really like how you said that. 76 00:07:19,620.48979592 --> 00:07:31,227.15646258 How can we contribute, how can our designs contribute to nature? Because that is such a different perspective from what a lot of people think of as you think of, you're going out and building. 77 00:07:31,567.15646258 --> 00:07:44,97.15646258 Different things on the landscape and you're changing the landscape and, how can we really design that? Because you think about a beaver, when they build a beaver dam, they completely change the entire ecosystem. 78 00:07:44,287.15646258 --> 00:07:51,918.82312925 but they become this keystone species for the entire ecosystem because of the fact that they create a pond for. 79 00:07:52,208.82312925 --> 00:08:03,158.82312925 Lots of different species and a nursery for many species to grow and survive in that wouldn't be able to survive if the stream just was let to run. 80 00:08:03,158.82312925 --> 00:08:03,423.82312925 That's it. 81 00:08:03,423.82312925 --> 00:08:10,133.82312925 But now that we have this pond there because of the beaver, they are, benefiting so many other species. 82 00:08:10,133.82312925 --> 00:08:16,213.82312925 So looking at how we can become an asset to that ecosystem, that is huge. 83 00:08:16,213.82312925 --> 00:08:17,483.82312925 I love how you pointed that out. 84 00:08:17,488.82312925 --> 00:08:20,58.82312925 And to add to that so those are ecological engineers. 85 00:08:20,58.82312925 --> 00:08:21,288.82312925 Buffalo is another example. 86 00:08:21,288.82312925 --> 00:08:21,708.82312925 Bison. 87 00:08:21,708.82312925 --> 00:08:29,98.82312925 We're working on a project with the Metis Nation of Alberta, with a 680 acre property where there is bison on the site. 88 00:08:29,428.82312925 --> 00:08:30,958.82312925 And so we're learning from the bison. 89 00:08:30,958.82312925 --> 00:08:34,323.82312925 How do we regenerate this land? Because bison will knock trees down. 90 00:08:34,323.82312925 --> 00:08:40,973.82312925 They'll knock the aspens all over the place, and people think that's destructive, but it actually, and they'll chew up the seeds of the grasses. 91 00:08:40,983.82312925 --> 00:08:44,163.82312925 But the way that they work is they create conditions conducive to more life. 92 00:08:44,333.82312925 --> 00:08:50,533.82312925 And I think that's the key part of our philosophy and biomimicry is everything that we're doing, we're trying to emulate nature. 93 00:08:50,543.82312925 --> 00:08:55,343.82312925 And one of the key things that nature does is when left alone, it creates conditions conducive to more life. 94 00:08:55,537.15646258 --> 00:09:01,792.15646258 So if we can have that as our metric, if that's our design standard, then we're gonna be moving beyond this idea of less harm. 95 00:09:01,802.15646258 --> 00:09:04,867.15646258 And I'll mention I truly believe that we can do that. 96 00:09:04,967.15646258 --> 00:09:10,803.82312925 I think a lot of us believe that humans are an innately destructive species, but I don't see us that way. 97 00:09:10,863.82312925 --> 00:09:13,263.82312925 Janine said this to me that we're not a bad species. 98 00:09:13,263.82312925 --> 00:09:14,463.82312925 We're just a very young one. 99 00:09:14,808.82312925 --> 00:09:16,698.82312925 And so I see us more as like childlike. 100 00:09:16,908.82312925 --> 00:09:20,708.82312925 We're still learning how to dance on this property of ours or this land. 101 00:09:20,718.82312925 --> 00:09:23,68.82312925 And we're using pretty rudimentary thinking. 102 00:09:23,68.82312925 --> 00:09:25,298.82312925 So nature is the ultimate model and measure. 103 00:09:25,368.82312925 --> 00:09:35,950.48979592 And there's studies that show forests and ecosystems that we're engaged with by indigenous people are healthier than those ecosystems that were not engaged by indigenous people. 104 00:09:35,960.48979592 --> 00:09:45,435.48979592 So there are quantitative studies to show that humans can dance with nature in a way that both can benefit that we can thrive and strive for more biodiversity. 105 00:09:45,435.48979592 --> 00:09:47,245.48979592 So yeah, I don't see us as a bad species. 106 00:09:47,275.48979592 --> 00:09:49,60.48979592 And that's the mentality I'm espousing. 107 00:09:49,65.48979592 --> 00:09:57,390.48979592 I agree with that cuz I think about, I used to be a camp counselor and so I would be working with kids and we'd be outside and playing. 108 00:09:57,390.48979592 --> 00:09:59,740.48979592 And some of the kids they have this mindset. 109 00:10:00,140.48979592 --> 00:10:04,850.48979592 I think that comes a lot from being indoors where it's oh, there's a spider, I've gotta kill it. 110 00:10:04,970.48979592 --> 00:10:05,660.48979592 And it's whoa. 111 00:10:06,50.48979592 --> 00:10:12,110.48979592 Like this fighter has every right to live out in, the outdoors. 112 00:10:12,115.48979592 --> 00:10:14,990.48979592 Like they have every right to live just as much as you do. 113 00:10:15,150.48979592 --> 00:10:16,945.48979592 You don't have any reason to kill it. 114 00:10:16,950.48979592 --> 00:10:17,165.48979592 Yeah. 115 00:10:17,365.48979592 --> 00:10:19,960.48979592 And you don't have to, control it or do anything to it. 116 00:10:19,960.48979592 --> 00:10:20,830.48979592 Just let it be. 117 00:10:20,890.48979592 --> 00:10:21,940.48979592 It's not gonna hurt you. 118 00:10:21,950.48979592 --> 00:10:24,980.48979592 He's way more afraid of you than you are of him. 119 00:10:24,980.48979592 --> 00:10:32,145.48979592 So yeah, getting us away from this idea that nature is scary, nature is like this place that we have to control that's right. 120 00:10:32,265.48979592 --> 00:10:41,970.48979592 And getting into this place of like, how can we work with nature? How can we, be able to, adapt to how nature naturally, builds up. 121 00:10:41,970.48979592 --> 00:10:48,770.48979592 I think that's such an important concept that we definitely need to mature into, like you were saying the maturity aspect. 122 00:10:48,980.48979592 --> 00:10:59,820.48979592 Like we have to teach our kids that, hey, like when bugs are outside, they deserve to live just as much as you do, and. 123 00:11:00,160.48979592 --> 00:11:08,10.48979592 As a species, I think we need to mature into this idea that hey, we don't have to control and what's that manicure nature. 124 00:11:08,40.48979592 --> 00:11:09,540.48979592 We can, grow with it. 125 00:11:09,600.48979592 --> 00:11:13,110.48979592 We can be an asset and I think that's super important. 126 00:11:13,160.48979592 --> 00:11:19,430.48979592 One of the things I studied in my research, cuz I was curious why humans became so different from the rest of the natural world. 127 00:11:19,730.48979592 --> 00:11:22,910.48979592 And so that's why I learned about these paradigms and these assumptions. 128 00:11:22,920.48979592 --> 00:11:32,465.48979592 And what was interesting is that the root of all of this is a very basic psychology and a very basic kind of physiology in that nature to us is complex. 129 00:11:32,465.48979592 --> 00:11:37,85.48979592 It's unknown, and it always has been and it still is if we're honest with ourselves. 130 00:11:37,95.48979592 --> 00:11:38,595.48979592 And that plex and unknown is scary. 131 00:11:38,635.48979592 --> 00:11:39,125.48979592 Exactly. 132 00:11:39,130.48979592 --> 00:11:41,470.48979592 And it's rooted in an ultimate fear of the unknown. 133 00:11:41,590.48979592 --> 00:11:48,520.48979592 It's why we af are afraid of death and getting fired and getting broken up with, because we don't know what's beyond that. 134 00:11:48,760.48979592 --> 00:11:50,500.48979592 And so our brain is hardwired. 135 00:11:50,510.48979592 --> 00:11:53,545.48979592 Based on trying to be efficient, it's hardwired to make assumptions. 136 00:11:53,545.48979592 --> 00:11:56,995.48979592 It's hardwired to make things that are complex, simple. 137 00:11:57,85.48979592 --> 00:12:00,265.48979592 And Newtonian science gave us such a great platform to do that with. 138 00:12:00,275.48979592 --> 00:12:05,605.48979592 So us engineering our environment allows us to go away from that complexity, that unknown of nature. 139 00:12:06,25.48979592 --> 00:12:12,995.48979592 And make more predictable environments so that we can assume that our walls are gonna stay up, or that the water in our tap is gonna stay clean. 140 00:12:13,5.48979592 --> 00:12:21,741.48979592 All these assumptions that we take for granted are rooted in this fear of the unknown, and ultimately in the way I see it, it's the fear of the complexity of the natural world. 141 00:12:22,56.48979592 --> 00:12:22,446.48979592 Definitely. 142 00:12:22,486.48979592 --> 00:12:24,636.48979592 And that has always, scared us. 143 00:12:24,636.48979592 --> 00:12:27,456.48979592 That's why we try to control it and all these exactly, those things. 144 00:12:27,461.48979592 --> 00:12:33,446.48979592 Cause it's just it's so scary, so unknown that's oh no, what are we gonna do? So yeah, no I completely agree with you there. 145 00:12:33,451.48979592 --> 00:12:47,446.48979592 So you what originally drew you into, trying to incorporate these pieces of biomimicry into your work and into what you do? So my story really began in 2004 when I was an engineering student. 146 00:12:47,596.48979592 --> 00:12:51,306.48979592 And when I was being taught engineering, they were teaching me a particular way of doing it. 147 00:12:51,666.48979592 --> 00:12:54,306.48979592 And the whole time I was like, man, there has to be another way. 148 00:12:54,336.48979592 --> 00:12:55,951.48979592 There has to be more creative solutions. 149 00:12:56,101.48979592 --> 00:12:59,201.48979592 It can't just be pipes, bridges, roads, and buildings like this. 150 00:12:59,794.82312925 --> 00:13:02,524.82312925 There has to be more creative ways to think about it. 151 00:13:02,534.82312925 --> 00:13:08,184.82312925 And then I took a, an elective called math and poetry, and it was an hour and a half of math and an hour and a half of poetry and. 152 00:13:08,194.82312925 --> 00:13:16,119.82312925 In the math section, we were uncovering math theorems and the professors were brilliant at making us believe like we are uncovering these theorems for the first time. 153 00:13:16,129.82312925 --> 00:13:18,289.82312925 And one of 'em was called the FCI sequence. 154 00:13:18,349.82312925 --> 00:13:22,959.82312925 And it's a sequence of numbers that you may be familiar with, but when you play with them, you can get this spiral. 155 00:13:23,386.48979592 --> 00:13:33,901.48979592 And the professor asked us, where have we seen that spiral before? And that's when all of a sudden we thought, Oh, waves crashing or the packaging of sunflower seeds or pine cones or, in our ears, in our skin. 156 00:13:33,901.48979592 --> 00:13:37,981.48979592 The way that the universe is expanding from Big Bang, this spirals ubiquitous in nature. 157 00:13:37,991.48979592 --> 00:13:49,274.82312925 And that was a kind of a trigger point for me to realize that all this time I had been spending my energy using math and science to engineer the environment when in fact math and science could teach me about. 158 00:13:49,634.82312925 --> 00:13:51,464.82312925 The environment and how it designs. 159 00:13:51,464.82312925 --> 00:13:53,364.82312925 And so I went on this obsession. 160 00:13:53,364.82312925 --> 00:13:56,984.82312925 I'd say I haven't done anything other than biomimicry since then. 161 00:13:56,994.82312925 --> 00:13:58,584.82312925 First learning the methodology. 162 00:13:58,584.82312925 --> 00:14:08,494.82312925 I worked with Janine Benes, the woman who popularized the term biomimicry, and she taught me, the basic principles she taught me, the methodology she taught me really the foundation of what I know. 163 00:14:08,504.82312925 --> 00:14:11,254.82312925 But then, I started to teach it at Oad University. 164 00:14:11,754.82312925 --> 00:14:13,84.82312925 I applied it in my masters. 165 00:14:13,874.82312925 --> 00:14:20,534.82312925 I began to work with more indigenous elders and indigenous communities who gave me a very interesting perspective on biomimicry. 166 00:14:20,539.82312925 --> 00:14:27,79.82312925 Cuz as one of my good friends and elders said to me when she found out what I did, she said we've been doing biomimicry for thousands of years. 167 00:14:27,89.82312925 --> 00:14:30,519.82312925 And so this whole evolution, I've been learning these tools. 168 00:14:30,519.82312925 --> 00:14:35,79.82312925 And then I did a PhD in engineering that focused on systems level biomimicry and urban resilience. 169 00:14:35,89.82312925 --> 00:14:41,440.82312925 And then it was, at that point I was like, okay, this is a lot of learning and the big barrier I'm seeing in the field is that it's not applied enough. 170 00:14:41,450.82312925 --> 00:14:46,375.82312925 And so that's when I created my company, biomimicry Frontiers, with the single purpose of Applying Biomimicry. 171 00:14:46,385.82312925 --> 00:14:54,200.82312925 And then I became the director of Biomimicry because of that, because, an architect firm that I worked with was inspired, and wanted to be, leaders in the field. 172 00:14:54,235.82312925 --> 00:14:57,640.82312925 That's the genesis of my biomimicry passion. 173 00:14:58,30.82312925 --> 00:15:06,590.82312925 And it's so exciting because like I was saying to a class this morning in India, My job will never end because I'll never know all the secrets of nature and I'll never, know how to apply 'em all. 174 00:15:06,950.82312925 --> 00:15:08,750.82312925 And we as a species won't know how to apply 'em all. 175 00:15:08,750.82312925 --> 00:15:12,270.82312925 So it's a, it's an unending job, which is gives me motivation every morning. 176 00:15:12,270.82312925 --> 00:15:13,320.82312925 There's no end in sight. 177 00:15:13,320.82312925 --> 00:15:18,171.82312925 So it's like, what can we learn today? What can we apply today? What can we move today? And that excites me incredibly. 178 00:15:18,226.82312925 --> 00:15:35,736.82312925 What is something that you recently learned that just really sparked your interest? This is, something I'm really interested in, is hair? There's hair on weeds, there's hair on leafs, there's hair on animals, and I'm just curious about hair in general as like a anti friction or like rain capturing device. 179 00:15:36,200.15646258 --> 00:15:41,76.82312925 But the, the thing that I don't know how it applies is learning that spiders. 180 00:15:41,86.82312925 --> 00:15:52,256.82312925 Spiders fly using the electromagnetic forces of the planet, so they will use their silk somehow connect to the electromagnetic forces of the planet and fly hundreds of miles offshore. 181 00:15:52,266.82312925 --> 00:15:53,526.82312925 I find this fascinating. 182 00:15:53,531.82312925 --> 00:15:54,86.82312925 Really? Yeah. 183 00:15:54,86.82312925 --> 00:15:55,806.82312925 And it's I don't know how that's gonna fly. 184 00:15:55,896.82312925 --> 00:15:56,316.82312925 Yeah. 185 00:15:56,566.82312925 --> 00:16:00,506.82312925 I actually, I just spoke to Air Canada two weeks ago for their Earth Day event and. 186 00:16:00,516.82312925 --> 00:16:06,226.82312925 We brought this up, it was like, what if planes in the future are using electromagnetic forces to fly? Yeah. 187 00:16:06,236.82312925 --> 00:16:06,716.82312925 I don't know. 188 00:16:06,836.82312925 --> 00:16:07,46.82312925 Wow. 189 00:16:07,406.82312925 --> 00:16:08,726.82312925 Just something that's fascinating to me. 190 00:16:08,731.82312925 --> 00:16:14,686.82312925 That's almost like The whole like superconductors and how they can, like float and just yes. 191 00:16:14,701.82312925 --> 00:16:18,946.82312925 Over the magnets within the rail line and so you just tap it. 192 00:16:18,946.82312925 --> 00:16:19,913.48979592 It's like super fast. 193 00:16:20,485.15646259 --> 00:16:23,205.15646259 Like I just imagine it being, something to that extent. 194 00:16:23,205.15646259 --> 00:16:24,55.15646259 But that's amazing. 195 00:16:24,65.15646259 --> 00:16:24,455.15646259 Wow. 196 00:16:24,505.15646259 --> 00:16:25,315.15646259 That's really cool. 197 00:16:25,325.15646259 --> 00:16:42,450.1564626 And how much do you see biomimicry taking, shape, in the marketplace, as a whole in terms of, design and architecture? Do you see it becoming more popular with more places or where do you see it right now? Yeah, I think this is one of the most exciting times. 198 00:16:42,500.1564626 --> 00:16:43,400.1564626 For biomimicry. 199 00:16:43,410.1564626 --> 00:16:47,670.1564626 We're seeing exponential growth in research development and investments. 200 00:16:47,715.1564626 --> 00:16:54,280.1564626 I've been tracking biomimicry technologies for 20 years and to see the growth in patents in and valuations. 201 00:16:54,280.1564626 --> 00:16:57,270.1564626 Like one of my friends companies they just got evaluated at 2 billion. 202 00:16:57,280.1564626 --> 00:17:01,900.1564626 They're called APL Science and they copy the skin of fruits to make hilariously. 203 00:17:02,270.1564626 --> 00:17:06,230.1564626 A better skin for fruits so that its shelf life can last longer. 204 00:17:06,240.1564626 --> 00:17:06,530.1564626 Yeah. 205 00:17:06,610.1564626 --> 00:17:08,125.1564626 There's an expected, I think, 1.6 206 00:17:08,125.1564626 --> 00:17:11,440.1564626 trillion in global output on biomimicry based technologies. 207 00:17:11,450.1564626 --> 00:17:14,780.1564626 So at the technical level, we're seeing incredible advancements. 208 00:17:15,110.1564626 --> 00:17:22,11.8231293 And then, at a larger, more systemic level, we're seeing architects and designers and engineers apply this. 209 00:17:22,11.8231293 --> 00:17:23,56.8231293 And, it's a struggle. 210 00:17:23,56.8231293 --> 00:17:24,346.8231293 I'll admit people. 211 00:17:24,711.8231293 --> 00:17:30,336.8231293 Struggle to understand how we can do it and how it can be inexpensive and. 212 00:17:30,346.8231293 --> 00:17:34,86.8231293 What I say to them is that the only barrier to biomimicry is creativity. 213 00:17:34,266.8231293 --> 00:17:35,796.8231293 It is a bit of a paradigm shift. 214 00:17:35,796.8231293 --> 00:17:42,856.8231293 It is a disruptor to the status quo because it's banking on assumptions that are different than the ones we've been using for hundreds of years. 215 00:17:42,866.8231293 --> 00:17:50,121.8231293 So it's just a matter of creativity and that's the genius of biomimicry, that it depends on collaboration and diverse collaboration. 216 00:17:50,178.4897959 --> 00:18:00,238.4897959 Which is a main driver for why I joined Savannah, Jerome and V plus H is I now have access to 16,000 geniuses to call on and say Hey, here's the problem we're working on. 217 00:18:00,268.4897959 --> 00:18:01,168.4897959 Here's an organism. 218 00:18:01,168.4897959 --> 00:18:15,48.4897959 How do we turn that organism's metaphor into a practical, inexpensive application? And to give you a real practical example, I helped design a house in India and one of the design challenges is how do you cool a large structure? And we looked at barrel cactus. 219 00:18:15,48.4897959 --> 00:18:17,288.4897959 We looked at ant and termite mounds. 220 00:18:17,293.4897959 --> 00:18:18,703.4897959 We also looked at elephant skin. 221 00:18:18,713.4897959 --> 00:18:25,833.4897959 And what we learned is that elephant skin has these cracks in them, that when you pour it over with water, all those cracks fill up with moisture. 222 00:18:26,210.1564626 --> 00:18:32,225.1564626 And the cracks create a bit of a protective barrier so that when it evaporates at a slower rate than say if it was a flat surface. 223 00:18:32,235.1564626 --> 00:18:34,425.1564626 Cuz if the sun hit it, it would evaporate quickly. 224 00:18:34,435.1564626 --> 00:18:39,295.1564626 So those cracks allow the evaporative cooling to take place over a longer period of time. 225 00:18:39,295.1564626 --> 00:18:49,514.4897959 So the animal cools over a longer period of time and we thought, what if we could apply that metaphor to our wall? And we hummed and hod and broke it down and realized that we could design. 226 00:18:49,859.4897959 --> 00:19:04,394.4897959 A rock facade or like a feature on the wall where we have these it's very beautiful, but we have these rocks stacked up in a way, where they're stable and we hook it up to the rain harvesting system so we could trickle water over those rocks and it acts as the same metaphor. 227 00:19:04,444.4897959 --> 00:19:12,644.4897959 The rock crevices will create a little bit of a protective barrier so it would evaporative cool over a longer period of time and pull the hot air away from the building. 228 00:19:12,654.4897959 --> 00:19:13,554.4897959 So that's an example. 229 00:19:13,584.4897959 --> 00:19:15,784.4897959 A Rockwall costs almost no dollars. 230 00:19:15,894.4897959 --> 00:19:23,594.4897959 And it's a fun experiment and you could put it strategically, in certain areas like on the south wall for the Northern Hemisphere and you can have this passive cooling device. 231 00:19:23,604.4897959 --> 00:19:27,634.4897959 So biomimicry it doesn't have to be expensive and it doesn't have to be hard. 232 00:19:27,734.4897959 --> 00:19:31,94.4897959 It's just a matter of creativity and working with really diverse thinkers. 233 00:19:31,149.4897959 --> 00:19:42,771.1564626 And would you be, Constantly flowing water over the wall or would that just be like something you did, every once in a while or when it rained or that kind of thing? That's the strategy, you see us humans love homogeneity. 234 00:19:42,776.1564626 --> 00:19:44,991.1564626 We love things to stay the same all the time. 235 00:19:45,21.1564626 --> 00:19:49,291.1564626 And so you look at our buildings, like we just have glass facades for days. 236 00:19:49,306.1564626 --> 00:19:50,506.1564626 Nature would never do that. 237 00:19:50,506.1564626 --> 00:19:52,66.1564626 It's super resource efficient. 238 00:19:52,66.1564626 --> 00:19:54,466.1564626 It uses information rather than materials. 239 00:19:54,466.1564626 --> 00:19:57,571.1564626 To answer your question, Quickly, it's no, we wouldn't do it all day. 240 00:19:57,571.1564626 --> 00:20:01,151.1564626 We would do it at peak sun times, or like when we wanna offset. 241 00:20:01,161.1564626 --> 00:20:06,381.1564626 This house is also passively cooled through ventilation, copying termite mounds and ant hills. 242 00:20:06,396.1564626 --> 00:20:12,426.1564626 We could use it to offset certain areas or certain rooms where it's actually designed near the kitchen where you'd have the stoves going. 243 00:20:12,436.1564626 --> 00:20:13,936.1564626 So it'd be strategic. 244 00:20:13,936.1564626 --> 00:20:18,166.1564626 We'd place it and we'd use it when the time was right and we could automate it if we wanted. 245 00:20:18,221.1564626 --> 00:20:25,521.1564626 That's the joy of right now is we have access to technologies that we didn't have 20 years ago, which makes some crazy ideas much more realistic. 246 00:20:25,531.1564626 --> 00:20:26,401.1564626 Yeah, definitely. 247 00:20:26,441.1564626 --> 00:20:31,626.1564626 What kind of technologies have you seen lately that's you're super excited about? I find, 40 printing. 248 00:20:31,626.1564626 --> 00:20:32,106.1564626 Interesting. 249 00:20:32,116.1564626 --> 00:20:35,391.1564626 It's where, oh, a 3D printed material changes over time. 250 00:20:35,396.1564626 --> 00:20:38,846.1564626 And within that there's a woman named Neri Oxman, he may be familiar with. 251 00:20:38,921.1564626 --> 00:20:45,736.1564626 She's a designer architect who is playing with, the relationship between ecology and materials, actually integrating. 252 00:20:46,117.8231293 --> 00:20:48,797.8231293 Biology into design strategies. 253 00:20:48,797.8231293 --> 00:20:54,447.8231293 So she made a silk pavilion where silk worms were actually part of designing the pavilion. 254 00:20:54,457.8231293 --> 00:20:54,547.8231293 Wow. 255 00:20:54,602.8231293 --> 00:20:58,442.8231293 She's made materials that, flake off and are fully biodegradable. 256 00:20:58,442.8231293 --> 00:21:03,332.8231293 So imagine the skin of a building that, sheds like our hair like in the summer. 257 00:21:03,337.8231293 --> 00:21:05,522.8231293 Yeah, she's, she also played with materials that. 258 00:21:05,852.8231293 --> 00:21:15,927.8231293 Have different densities and different, moisture content or relationships so that if you put your hand on it, you know that certain part of the wall will change, in relationship to the other parts of the wall. 259 00:21:15,927.8231293 --> 00:21:28,222.8231293 So she's really pushing the boundaries of what she calls material ecology and, a lot of it's at prototype level, but she's got an invested interest in seeing that scaled up to architecture and buildings. 260 00:21:28,232.8231293 --> 00:21:28,592.8231293 Yeah. 261 00:21:28,922.8231293 --> 00:21:34,852.8231293 That's super cool to be able to see that the peeling of the building that's just wow, this is crazy. 262 00:21:34,852.8231293 --> 00:21:36,192.8231293 I never would've thought of that before. 263 00:21:36,247.8231293 --> 00:21:41,649.4897959 And you also are working on another project with the bio commons. 264 00:21:41,654.4897959 --> 00:21:53,139.4897959 Do you wanna talk to that a bit? Yeah in my journey of applying biomimicry, I've had a lot of people ask me, okay, how can I apply it? How can I make a job out of it? So I think I'm the first director of Biomimicry in the world. 265 00:21:53,149.4897959 --> 00:21:54,859.4897959 Microsoft I know has one now. 266 00:21:54,874.4897959 --> 00:21:59,564.4897959 But I think it's been inspiring for people who wanna do this as a full-time career. 267 00:21:59,569.4897959 --> 00:22:08,789.4897959 Biomimicry Commons was built outta that desire to see other people create their own companies, their own niches in this field and to focus on its application. 268 00:22:08,799.4897959 --> 00:22:13,339.4897959 So in it, we've captured pretty much everything I've learned in the last 20 years. 269 00:22:13,339.4897959 --> 00:22:19,729.4897959 We've built it into a course and a suite of platforms where people can learn how to bring biomimicry to their own life. 270 00:22:19,739.4897959 --> 00:22:22,329.4897959 So we have a PDF workbook that. 271 00:22:22,644.4897959 --> 00:22:25,304.4897959 Is based on the 20 years I've been working in this field. 272 00:22:25,544.4897959 --> 00:22:26,894.4897959 We have a self-paced course. 273 00:22:27,284.4897959 --> 00:22:38,221.1564626 We have mastermind groups back country excursions, but most importantly, all of these lead to a community where a community of people that want to work together and support each other in building a. 274 00:22:38,231.1564626 --> 00:22:39,191.1564626 They're businesses. 275 00:22:39,241.1564626 --> 00:22:41,671.1564626 So it's a bit of an incubator and a disruptor space. 276 00:22:41,671.1564626 --> 00:22:52,426.1564626 So when companies want to have a group of really smart people use biomimicry, you come to the Commons and you throw your problem out and have two or three people jump on and give you a etic perspective. 277 00:22:52,546.1564626 --> 00:22:54,736.1564626 So yeah, the Commons is a platform. 278 00:22:54,771.1564626 --> 00:22:56,991.1564626 It's for those who want to bring this to life. 279 00:22:56,991.1564626 --> 00:22:59,106.1564626 And, I think it has tremendous potential. 280 00:22:59,106.1564626 --> 00:23:04,896.1564626 And I think we're just in our early stages, it's a really exciting time because we're seeing some cool companies come out of it already. 281 00:23:04,901.1564626 --> 00:23:08,206.1564626 And we're seeing some really cool diversity of groups work together. 282 00:23:08,216.1564626 --> 00:23:09,266.1564626 Yeah that's really cool. 283 00:23:09,461.1564626 --> 00:23:13,216.1564626 Do you have one that came out you want to, highlight here? Good question. 284 00:23:13,316.1564626 --> 00:23:17,416.1564626 There's one group that formed in my last mastermind last fall. 285 00:23:17,426.1564626 --> 00:23:27,566.1564626 They didn't know each other beforehand, and then they came together in this mastermind and have built a company helping businesses, use biomimicry to improve their own corporate resilience. 286 00:23:27,576.1564626 --> 00:23:30,396.1564626 So it's more of a social strategy than a design strategy. 287 00:23:30,401.1564626 --> 00:23:39,601.1564626 have corporate experience and they're using principles and examples in nature, for example, ants, which are called super organisms, they don't have a hierarchical structure. 288 00:23:39,611.1564626 --> 00:23:44,321.1564626 Ants seem to work very efficiently without any top-down management structure. 289 00:23:44,331.1564626 --> 00:23:54,811.1564626 So what principles could we learn from that and bring to the corporate environment to improve corporate resilience or, innovation? So this is the kind of thinking that they're bringing and I think they're onto something. 290 00:23:54,841.1564626 --> 00:23:58,21.1564626 There's a lot of interest in that social rem biomimicry as well. 291 00:23:58,31.1564626 --> 00:23:59,561.1564626 Yeah, no, that's really interesting. 292 00:23:59,561.1564626 --> 00:24:15,351.1564626 I also think of, in terms of birds, bird flocks, when they fly, like these flocks of price species Like pigeons they'll all flock together and then, you'll form these masses of just like birds that are all moving together as one. 293 00:24:15,541.1564626 --> 00:24:21,246.1564626 And then they're trying to avoid the, hawk that is above them, trying to take out one of the weakest link there. 294 00:24:21,466.1564626 --> 00:24:23,126.1564626 But they all moved together and. 295 00:24:23,181.1564626 --> 00:24:33,311.1564626 They did a study like with a randomized sample and simulation online where you could actually show that if one bird starts shifting one way, then it can actually making the entire group. 296 00:24:33,604.4897959 --> 00:24:34,634.4897959 And they follow that dynamic. 297 00:24:34,644.4897959 --> 00:24:40,844.4897959 But it's also just really interesting to see that because like none of those birds in that group are leading. 298 00:24:40,854.4897959 --> 00:24:40,975.4897959 That's right. 299 00:24:40,980.4897959 --> 00:24:43,825.4897959 There's no like birds saying, okay, we're gonna move this way now. 300 00:24:44,10.4897959 --> 00:24:44,300.4897959 Yeah. 301 00:24:44,355.4897959 --> 00:24:44,505.4897959 No. 302 00:24:44,510.4897959 --> 00:24:48,45.4897959 Director is happening, but they move all together in this one form. 303 00:24:48,355.4897959 --> 00:24:50,576.4897959 And it can be, thousands of birds doing this, yes. 304 00:24:50,576.4897959 --> 00:24:51,296.4897959 Moving together. 305 00:24:51,606.4897959 --> 00:24:53,136.4897959 So it's really incredible to see. 306 00:24:53,136.4897959 --> 00:24:53,886.4897959 But I, that. 307 00:24:53,956.4897959 --> 00:24:57,246.4897959 Just, reminded me of when you mentioned the ants working together. 308 00:24:57,246.4897959 --> 00:25:05,176.4897959 So I think that's really incredible to really be able to see how you can apply that to human systems and Yeah, working together in that way. 309 00:25:05,176.4897959 --> 00:25:12,375.8231293 And then so that, humans can work together more efficiently and more effectively without having that, top down, model it, That would be incredible. 310 00:25:12,375.8231293 --> 00:25:23,745.8231293 And where do you see either B plus H or what you're doing with the bio acute commons? Where do you see this going in the next six months or so? With B plus H I just got back from Singapore. 311 00:25:23,805.8231293 --> 00:25:27,305.8231293 One of our projects won an award there and I was able to meet with. 312 00:25:27,489.1564626 --> 00:25:28,579.1564626 Our larger Thank you. 313 00:25:28,579.1564626 --> 00:25:30,379.1564626 Our, yeah, our larger group of companies. 314 00:25:30,389.1564626 --> 00:25:34,819.1564626 And man did I leave inspired the amount of genius, in a group of companies. 315 00:25:34,899.1564626 --> 00:25:38,139.1564626 The commitment of those people I talk to sustainability. 316 00:25:38,169.1564626 --> 00:25:46,369.1564626 I think it's like in the next six months, I think there's gonna be greater partnerships within our group of companies and working on projects that are really pushing the envelope. 317 00:25:46,384.1564626 --> 00:25:48,694.1564626 And then with the bio commons, I think. 318 00:25:48,699.1564626 --> 00:25:50,259.1564626 We're launching a couple more programs. 319 00:25:50,259.1564626 --> 00:25:54,234.1564626 We're starting to get our groove, with our new leader Lily Lily Irman. 320 00:25:54,234.1564626 --> 00:25:56,784.1564626 She's helped build a lot of biomimicry programs. 321 00:25:56,784.1564626 --> 00:25:59,639.1564626 She helped build the master's program, at Arizona State University. 322 00:25:59,639.1564626 --> 00:26:02,634.1564626 So she's taken the lead now, and helping drive that arm. 323 00:26:02,634.1564626 --> 00:26:07,874.1564626 But I think where I'd like to see the commons gain more traction is in the community building. 324 00:26:07,934.1564626 --> 00:26:10,709.1564626 So we have a good, group of people who have gone through. 325 00:26:10,714.1564626 --> 00:26:22,809.1564626 And I'd love to figure out how can we foster that environment and really encourage them to build their companies and work together to make it more of that ant colony where there's no hierarchy, like we can just work together effectively for the greater good. 326 00:26:22,819.1564626 --> 00:26:32,475.8231293 For me, my passion is applying biomimicry because when we apply it, we understand the story, and when we understand the story, we see the genius of nature. 327 00:26:32,485.8231293 --> 00:26:43,775.8231293 And when we see that genius, we let nature be like, I just think if we can leave nature alone and figure out how to reintegrate ourselves into it, that will be the most effective thing for our species survival. 328 00:26:43,895.8231293 --> 00:26:45,665.8231293 So it all has a purpose. 329 00:26:45,665.8231293 --> 00:26:52,275.8231293 There's all a reason why I'm doing this, but, I'm excited about the potential both of those worlds B plus H and the Commons. 330 00:26:52,405.8231293 --> 00:26:55,285.8231293 I think it's just keep applying it and keep figuring out how to apply it. 331 00:26:55,295.8231293 --> 00:26:55,955.8231293 Yeah, exactly. 332 00:26:55,955.8231293 --> 00:27:00,760.8231293 Because if you look at regenerative agriculture is starting to come up in a very big way. 333 00:27:00,760.8231293 --> 00:27:11,35.8231293 We were realizing, okay, maybe we shouldn't have, just drenched our soil in pesticides and herbicides and all of this stuff, and oh hey, that's like a not a very good thing. 334 00:27:11,95.8231293 --> 00:27:16,555.8231293 And oh, maybe we shouldn't plow the land even though we've been doing that for, since this. 335 00:27:16,565.8231293 --> 00:27:26,915.8231293 The beginning of time it feels like, and it's like there's so much that we realize now that if we work together with nature, it can be so much more effective. 336 00:27:26,915.8231293 --> 00:27:32,914.1564626 We can have a much more healthier soil that, not only captures carbon, but also does Right. 337 00:27:33,210.8231293 --> 00:27:39,30.8231293 so many other things that are beneficial to the environment and the biodiversity within the environment. 338 00:27:39,30.8231293 --> 00:27:44,835.8231293 Like it's just, Amazing to, see that we went away trying to okay, we have to control it. 339 00:27:44,835.8231293 --> 00:27:45,645.8231293 We have to control it. 340 00:27:45,645.8231293 --> 00:27:46,755.8231293 Oh, we're better than it now. 341 00:27:46,755.8231293 --> 00:27:52,450.8231293 We're like, oh, maybe we should take a step back and learn from it and see how we can, understand what it's doing. 342 00:27:52,450.8231293 --> 00:27:54,76.8231293 Cuz it's been doing it for a lot longer than we have. 343 00:27:54,115.8231293 --> 00:27:57,25.8231293 So if we can just learn from it, it'd be so much more effective. 344 00:27:57,35.8231293 --> 00:27:59,285.8231293 And I think that's the power of biomimicry. 345 00:27:59,285.8231293 --> 00:28:02,525.8231293 Things like regenerative agriculture or circularity. 346 00:28:02,920.8231293 --> 00:28:06,400.8231293 Or passive design or additive manufacturing. 347 00:28:06,410.8231293 --> 00:28:13,50.8231293 All of these ideas that we think we've come up with in the last 20 to 30 years is nature's done it long before us. 348 00:28:13,350.8231293 --> 00:28:17,910.8231293 Nature did it all first and what's exciting is that nature will teach us what to do next as well. 349 00:28:17,920.8231293 --> 00:28:19,560.8231293 So we'll engage in that conversation. 350 00:28:19,900.8231293 --> 00:28:24,665.8231293 We'll learn about the next trend, the circular economy of 20 30. 351 00:28:24,675.8231293 --> 00:28:30,690.8231293 And the other thing I wanted to mention is that, going back to that idea that we're just a young species a friend of mine put it this way. 352 00:28:30,695.8231293 --> 00:28:40,56.8231293 We've been given this work of art, let's say a Picasso, a Van Gogh or Monet, like this plant is beautiful and we've been asked to add to it to actually paint on top of it. 353 00:28:40,416.8231293 --> 00:28:46,271.8231293 And for the last couple hundred years we've been scribbling obnoxiously or just inadvertently, or ignorantly. 354 00:28:46,601.8231293 --> 00:28:48,161.8231293 We've just been scribbling on top of it. 355 00:28:48,161.8231293 --> 00:28:57,721.8231293 But there is a place that when we can learn the brush strokes, if we can learn the techniques for how to add to it, when we listen to nature, we can create a more beautiful canvas. 356 00:28:57,721.8231293 --> 00:29:00,631.8231293 We can create more harmony with a built environment. 357 00:29:00,631.8231293 --> 00:29:02,636.8231293 And that's the ultimate goal, is to do that. 358 00:29:02,646.8231293 --> 00:29:03,306.8231293 Yeah, definitely. 359 00:29:03,306.8231293 --> 00:29:03,696.8231293 I agree. 360 00:29:03,696.8231293 --> 00:29:05,896.8231293 That's a beautiful comparison there. 361 00:29:05,896.8231293 --> 00:29:06,676.8231293 I really like that. 362 00:29:07,16.8231293 --> 00:29:19,171.8231293 And, what would be one suggestion that you might have for another Ecopreneur who's on the podcast might be listening to this, what was one suggestion that you would have to help them grow their green business it's pretty simple. 363 00:29:19,171.8231293 --> 00:29:26,526.8231293 Just anything that you do ask nature how she would do it, how she would improve it, understand those principles, learn those principles. 364 00:29:26,526.8231293 --> 00:29:31,446.8231293 And I'd say too, with biomimicry, there's a misconception that you need to be a biologist or a designer and architect. 365 00:29:31,923.4897959 --> 00:29:33,423.4897959 And that's not the case. 366 00:29:33,473.4897959 --> 00:29:34,523.4897959 I'm not an architect. 367 00:29:34,763.4897959 --> 00:29:36,143.4897959 I dropped outta biology in high school. 368 00:29:36,143.4897959 --> 00:29:36,863.4897959 I hated biology. 369 00:29:37,370.1564626 --> 00:29:43,70.1564626 The people that come through the commons, we have dancers, we had economists from Swiss banks, we've had professors. 370 00:29:43,190.1564626 --> 00:29:44,240.1564626 It doesn't really matter. 371 00:29:44,250.1564626 --> 00:29:45,870.1564626 Bio can apply to anything. 372 00:29:45,875.1564626 --> 00:30:05,520.1564626 It's simply just a shift in your lens so that when you're looking at the world, start to question why do we do it that way? And how would nature do it? So even if I'm looking at a wall, I start to think of skins or tree bark and, what if our walls could breathe and expand and shed and sweat, it's just a conversation that starts with a shift in our perspective. 373 00:30:05,525.1564626 --> 00:30:06,515.1564626 And it's very simple. 374 00:30:06,645.1564626 --> 00:30:08,295.1564626 And it's an ongoing conversation. 375 00:30:08,295.1564626 --> 00:30:14,935.1564626 So any ecopreneur out there if you want the most sustainable ideas, The only sustainable model we have on this planet is nature. 376 00:30:14,935.1564626 --> 00:30:21,625.1564626 It's been around for billions of years, and for me, I think the most comprehensive tool for learning from that genius is biomimicry. 377 00:30:21,625.1564626 --> 00:30:24,725.1564626 Engage in that conversation and see what improvements you can make. 378 00:30:24,735.1564626 --> 00:30:25,935.1564626 Yeah I agree with that. 379 00:30:25,945.1564626 --> 00:30:27,775.1564626 Nature is definitely the most sustainable. 380 00:30:27,775.1564626 --> 00:30:30,975.1564626 It's been around for thousands and thousands of years and knows how to do it. 381 00:30:31,95.1564626 --> 00:30:40,310.1564626 And if anybody wants to reach out to you, learn more about what you do, find out more about the Emory Commons, how can they get in touch with you? Yeah, either through our Commons website. 382 00:30:40,415.1564626 --> 00:30:43,85.1564626 Www.biorecommons.com 383 00:30:43,205.1564626 --> 00:30:46,145.1564626 or the consulting website, biomimicry frontiers.com. 384 00:30:46,200.1564626 --> 00:30:51,5.1564626 You can get ahold of us on either of those and you can join our mailing list where we're constantly, not constantly. 385 00:30:51,50.1564626 --> 00:30:52,705.1564626 We don't pepper you with emails. 386 00:30:52,705.1564626 --> 00:30:54,626.1564626 We just give you the good stuff when we need to. 387 00:30:54,636.1564626 --> 00:30:59,426.1564626 We'll keep you informed on upcoming courses and, commons collaborations and things like that. 388 00:30:59,436.1564626 --> 00:30:59,826.1564626 Great. 389 00:30:59,936.1564626 --> 00:31:04,76.1564626 Thank you so much, Jamie for coming on to the Green Business Impact Podcast. 390 00:31:04,76.1564626 --> 00:31:15,411.1564626 It's been awesome having you on, being able to talk about Bye Mercury, and what you are doing to really help us get back to nature, understand how we can take principles of nature and design it into everything we do. 391 00:31:15,811.1564626 --> 00:31:17,941.1564626 So thank you so much for coming on the show. 392 00:31:18,331.1564626 --> 00:31:19,201.1564626 Thanks very much for having me. 393 00:31:19,201.1564626 --> 00:31:19,711.1564626 It's a pleasure.