What if, every time I started to invent something, I asked, 'How would nature solve this?' Janine Benyus More Quotes by Janine Benyus More Quotes From Janine Benyus The more our world functions like the natural world, the more likely we are to endure on this home that is ours, but not ours alone. Janine Benyus change mother inspirational The answers to our questions are everywhere; we just need to change the lens with which we see the world. Janine Benyus lenses answers needs After decades of faithful study, ecologists have begun to fathom hidden likenesses among many interwoven systems. ...a canon of nature's laws, strategies, and principles... Janine Benyus nature law running Biomimicry is innovation inspired by nature. In a society accustomed to dominating or 'improving' nature, this respectful imitation is a radically new approach, a revolution really. Unlike the Industrial Revolution, the Biomimicry Revolution introduces an era based not on what we can extract from nature, but on what we can learn from her. Janine Benyus eras innovation revolution For the 99 percent of the time we've been on Earth, we were hunter and gatherers, our lives dependent on knowing the fine, small details of our world. Deep inside, we still have a longing to be reconnected with the nature that shaped our imagination, our language, our song and dance, our sense of the divine. Janine Benyus our-world nature song Biomimicry is basically taking a design challenge and then finding an ecosystem that's already solved that challenge, and literally trying to emulate what you learn. Janine Benyus ecosystems design challenges When the forest and the city are functionally indistinguishable, then we know we have reached sustainability. Janine Benyus sustainability cities forests A solitary American monk named Thomas Berry writes that in our relationship to nature, we have been autistic for centuries. Wrapped tightly in our own version of knowledge, we have been unreceptive to the wisdom of the natural world. To tune in again, to have the "spontaneous environmental rapport" that characterized our ancestors, will take doing something that is perfectly delightful: reimmersing ourselves in the natural world. Janine Benyus nature writing animal If the age of the Earth were a calendar year and today were a breath before midnight on New Year's Eve, we showed up a scant fifteen minutes ago, and all of recorded history has blinked by in the last sixty seconds. Luckily for us, our planet-mates--the fantastic meshwork of plants, animals, and microbes--have been patiently perfecting their wares since March, an incredible 3.8 billion years since the first bacteria. ...After 3.8 billion years of research and development, failures are fossils, and what surrounds us is the secret to survival. Janine Benyus new-year nature animal There are three types of biomimicry - one is copying form and shape, another is copying a process, like photosynthesis in a leaf, and the third is mimicking at an ecosystem's level, like building a nature-inspired city. Janine Benyus copying ecosystems cities The answers to how to live sustainably on our planet are all around us. Janine Benyus our-planet planets answers Biologically inspired materials could revolutionize materials science. People looking at spider silk and abalone shells are looking for new ways to make materials better, cheaper, and with less toxic byproducts. Janine Benyus spiders toxic people Life creates conditions conducive to life. Janine Benyus biomimicry conditions In reality, we haven't escaped the gravity of life at all. We are still beholden to ecological laws, the same as any other life-form. Janine Benyus nature animal reality Life solves its problems with well-adapted designs, life-friendly chemistry and smart material and energy use. Janine Benyus smart design friendly If we are to use our tools in the service of fitting in on Earth, our basic relationship to nature--even the story we tell ourselves about who we are in the universe--has to change. Janine Benyus nature tools animal Nature works with five polymers. Only five polymers. In the natural world, life builds from the bottom up, and it builds in resilience and multiple uses. Janine Benyus resilience use world Jay Harman is the quintessential biomimic, a principled inventor who sees solutions everywhere he looks in the natural world. And he looks deeply, with the soul of a student. He moves with grace from a world of waving sea kelp to the world of sustainable design, bringing nature's wisdom into the board rooms of global companies, to the design tables of the engineers and designers who make our world. This is more than a business book, more than a memoir, more than a new way to solve global challenges. It's a book about a new way to think. Janine Benyus book moving thinking Water is at the center of every chemical reaction, and therefore should be the earths most precious gift. Janine Benyus chemical-reactions earth water For businesses, biomimicry is about bringing a new discipline - biology - to the design table. It's not to write an environmental impact statement, as most biologists in business do right now. Janine Benyus impact discipline writing
