Biomimicry, a term coined by Janine Benyus in her book of the same name, is a new science that studies nature's most successful solutions and then uses what it learns from these solutions to address human problems. Built on the premise that after 3.8 billion years of research and development, nature has already solved many of the problems that face human technology, biomimicry consciously looks to natural systems as models, measures, and mentors for innovation. Other related terms include bio-inspired and biomimetics.

With biological knowledge doubling every five years, biomimics look to nature for answers to specific questions, such as …

• How can we more effectively and more cleanly harness and renew energy?
• How can we manufacture materials using less energy and with less waste?
• How can we identify organic strategies to live healthy, remain healthy, and return to health in the face of illness or injury?
• How can we efficiently store increasingly larger amounts of information in increasingly smaller spaces?
• How can we conduct profitable, innovative, sustainable businesses without cannibalizing the planet’s natural capital?

Nature has already determined what is successful and sustainable. Industry now has the scientific knowledge and instrument technology to emulate nature’s technology.   (This information has been excerpted from an interview with Janine Benyus posted on the Biommicry web site.)