1. Many organizations aim for sustainability, but Biomimicry 3.8 advocates for regeneration. How do you guide clients from sustainability to truly regenerative design?
First and foremost, we emphasize that the pathway to regenerative is a journey—it is not a box to check but rather an opportunity to transition processes, products, services, and facilities to generate outcomes that benefit the company, their customers, and the ecosystem in which they operate.
Once that mindset is understood, we guide our clients from sustainability to regenerative design by applying Nature's principles throughout the design process. We begin with the basic understanding of how the challenges they face have already been solved in Nature—there is an abundance of biological intelligence available to derisk and accelerate the process. We apply these biomimetic insights to specific challenges.
Our approach typically includes:
- Learning from Nature's forms, processes, and ecosystems to inspire design solutions.
- Moving beyond "less bad" sustainability to create positive, regenerative outcomes.
- Using Life's Principles (Nature’s design guidelines) as a framework for regenerative design.
- Taking a place-based approach that connects designs to local ecosystems.
Our work culminates in developing regenerative solutions that create conditions conducive to all Life.
2. With increasing interest in circular economy principles, how can biomimicry help create materials that not only biodegrade but also actively contribute to ecosystems?
Biomimicry is a recognized pillar of the circular economy. We often say you can’t achieve circularity without biomimicry, and biomimicry naturally delivers circular outcomes.
Biomimicry offers powerful insights for creating materials that go beyond biodegradation to actively benefit ecosystems and the supply chain, aligning perfectly with circular economy goals. Nature has already solved the challenge of creating materials that serve multiple functions during use, then break down to provide value at end-of-life. Some examples include:
- Nutrient cycling inspiration: Natural systems have no "waste"—everything becomes food for something else. Biomimetic materials can be designed to decompose into compounds that nourish soil microbes or plants rather than merely disappearing.
- Multi-functional materials: Spider silk, for example, is strong, flexible, and made from renewable proteins at ambient temperatures. Biomimicry helps develop materials with similar properties that can safely return to biological cycles.
- Ecosystem-specific design: Materials can be tailored to benefit the ecosystems where they'll end their life cycle—providing additional nutrients, supporting microbial communities, and stabilizing soil structures.
- Temporal design: Natural materials often change properties over time in useful ways. Materials could be designed to serve one purpose during use, then transform to serve different functions during decomposition.
- Regenerative additives: Materials might incorporate seeds, spores, or beneficial microorganisms that activate during decomposition, directly contributing to ecosystem restoration.
In addition to materials innovation, these and other biomimicry strategies support the design of circular processes and systems, such as industrial symbiosis that mimics nutrient cycling, reuse, and remanufacturing, leveraging cyclic processes and the use of readily available materials.
3. Your founders helped define the field of biomimicry—how do you see the discipline evolving in the next decade?
One of the most exciting evolutions we are currently seeing is the application of biomimicry to solve system-level challenges (vs. single product or material innovations). We are working on projects where manufacturing facilities, data centers, and even corporate and college campuses are being designed to function like the forests or wildlands next door.
The role of AI will expedite the biomimicry research process, enabling more strategies and solutions to be identified and, in theory, come to market faster. It is exciting to consider how much more sophisticated and effective solutions will be with computational designs that embody the intelligence and integrity of Nature’s genius.
Another trend we are seeing is the recognition of our dependencies on Nature. This is prevalent with the launch and success of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), in which over 500 global companies have voluntarily signed up to assess their risks and dependencies on Nature. This awareness quickly turns the conversations from Nature being a resource that can be extracted to understanding and learning how we can operate in reciprocity with Nature. We are seeing the awareness that humans are part of Nature (not separate or above), and by taking care of Nature, we are taking care of ourselves and future generations.
Our role at B3.8 is often to help people see that this way of thinking is not new, it is a remembering. Indigenous peoples have and continue to practice this way of being. We are hopeful that as the field evolves, we’ll see a more integrated and intentional braiding of western science with Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK).
4. Biomimicry has inspired product design, architecture, and corporate strategy—but what unexpected areas could benefit from nature-inspired thinking that few are exploring?
One of the most inspiring, and perhaps grounding opportunities is the application of biomimicry to social innovation. We’ve explored topics such as mutualisms in the natural world to help organizations better understand effective partnerships, or how Nature does trust or manage resource flows. These are crucial societal questions in our current moment of division and uncertainty. Nature can serve as the impartial voice in the room that democratizes conversation while informing holistic solutions benefiting all stakeholders. As Janine Benyus brilliantly stated, "Biomimicry gives us a manual for how to be a good earthling." Understanding and operating by this manual may be the most profound and urgent application of biomimicry available to us.
5. Your academic background spans marine biology, ecology, and resource conservation. How have these fields influenced your unique perspective on biomimicry?
My undergraduate training was actually a joint degree in environmental biology, fine art, and chemistry. Coupled with my MS in resource conservation, I’ve always been most comfortable in the interstitial spaces between these fields. While my love of biology and how Nature works led me to focus on understanding her brilliance, my design sensibilities (as a means to solving problems), and a deep desire to do right by Nature (influencing my resource conservation direction), made it a natural fit when I finally found biomimicry in January of 1998, just months after Janine’s book came out. I don’t know that my perspective is unique per se, but rather fundamentally shapes what the field is about…leveraging Nature’s insights (biology) to inspire design emulations (design) to bring about a thriving planet for all (i.e., resource conservation, for lack of a better framing—but that’s another story).
I’m a firm proponent that if you are doing biomimicry alone, you aren’t doing biomimicry. To be truly successful, it takes a transdisciplinary team: biologists, designers, engineers, businesspeople, and other implementers, storytellers, translators, and facilitators. It is with this mindset that I created the graduate programs you mention in the second question. Our first training was in 2003, with my then three-week-old daughter strapped to the front of me; our first cohort for the Certified Biomimicry Professional (BPro) program started in 2008, and we migrated and adapted our trainings for online at Arizona State University (ASU) for the MS and graduate certificates in 2015. To date, we have had hundreds of people invest a year or more into their education, deepening their understanding of biomimicry through the BPro program, the Biomimicry Specialist program, and the MS and graduate certificates at ASU (plus thousands of individuals in our shorter format trainings).
6. You designed the world’s first Certified Biomimicry Professional program and co-founded the Master of Science in Biomimicry. How do you ensure biomimicry is taught as more than just a design trend, but as a deep-rooted practice?
My intention in creating these programs (and the concordant depth of the curricula) was precisely to support the development of a deep-rooted practice. While we widely share the Essential Elements of Biomimicry (emulate, (re)connect, and ethos) and emphasize that all are necessary to practice biomimicry, it takes a more in-depth understanding and attention to grok the full potential of this kind of mindset and approach. We long ago decided that policing the meme was not our work to do in the world, and there will be (and already are) plenty of “examples” labeled as biomimicry that lack one or more of the essential elements (and thus might be considered a design trend). Our work focuses on demonstrating what can be possible and showcasing and highlighting those “best of” stories. That said, we also believe that even if you start with just emulate, you are bound to fall in love with your teacher from the more-than-human world—a critical first step towards embracing the (re)connect and ethos elements. After 27 years in this work, I’m not worried about a passing trend—the interest has only grown year after year.
Our programs, whether the one-week immersions or the MS + BPro path (the deepest biomimicry training anywhere in the world), all embody the essential elements from the moment the training begins to the very last minute of the experience. That’s all we can do—model what we hope our participants will embody as they move out into the world with their own biomimicry practice.
7. You’ve traveled to over 30 countries, exploring biomimicry across cultures. Are there any indigenous knowledge systems that have influenced how you approach biomimicry?
It shouldn’t be surprising that every indigenous knowledge system arose from a deep connection to Nature. The teachings are embodied in these practices all over the world. We’ve long said that biomimicry is an emerging discipline of an ancient (and extant) practice. In my conversations with indigenous communities wherever I travel, the synergies (and convergent evolution) of Nature’s lessons are everywhere. I view biomimicry as a steppingstone for people and cultures whose dominant narrative is largely disconnected from Nature—it’s an “acceptable” means to find their way home. In doing so, I believe humanity as a whole can remember our evolutionary roots and re-establish across the board a right relationship with the rest of Life. It’s our only choice.
