The Building Blocks of True Sustainability 🐳
Nature holds the answers to questions we’ve yet learnt how to ask. We need to ask better questions.
What you and I can learn from Nature is only limited by the quality of the questions we are able to ask. One question that remains close to my heart is: what are the tried and tested strategies within nature and how can we mimic these in our own designs, systems and processes?
“Any strategy that has lasted for millions of years is worth taking seriously” – Lyall Watson
Let’s consider the world’s largest mammals – the whale. Whales are evolutionary marvels and have been around for more than 50 million years! Before that they walked on land and had four legs (ref. National History Museum). How has the whale adapted to life in the water and what might we learn from its ecological strategies?
🌲 Whales and our ocean's invisible forests
Whales today perform a very unique ecosystem service by sequestering carbon from the ocean. The somewhat recent recovery of this remarkable species is now helping humanity fight climate change. To understand this, let's start small. Phytoplankton are microscopic marine algae dubbed the ‘ocean's invisible forests'. When phytoplankton die, much of their carbon gets recycled at the ocean’s surface, but some dead phytoplankton inevitably sink, sending more captured carbon to the bottom of the sea. A study from 2010 found that the 12,000 sperm whales in the Southern Ocean draw 200,000 tons of carbon out of the atmosphere each year by stimulating phytoplankton growth and death through their iron-rich defecations.
Whales are directly responsible for boosting phytoplankton growth in two ways. The movement of whales pushes nutrients from the bottom of the ocean to the surface, which feeds phytoplankton and other marine life. The second way they help with carbon absorption is through their poop. These methods in turn support the entire food web of our oceans. This relationship between whales and phytoplankton ensures the sequestering of carbon which assists in stabilising the global climate. In short, whales play a critical role in regulating our climate at a systems level.
Using nature to restore the balance of our planet's climate is a simple yet effective idea, which brings life and rewilding to the forefront of sustainable innovation. Through the years, whales have been linked to many other remarkable feats and innovations. Humanity has brought this species back from the brink of extinction, and there is a lot we can learn. Another innovation that whales have humans involves mimicking the bumps on humpback-whale fins leading to more efficient wind turbines. This is the practice called Biomimicry.
📚 Biomimicry Explained
Biomimicry is a practice that learns from and mimics the strategies found in nature to solve human design challenges — and find hope along the way.
Many ask what can I do to stop the wave of biodiversity loss, or Climate Change? The answer is that you alone may not be able to stop the entire wave, but you can change your local environment, business and the products you put into the world. To change the world, you must change yourself. Thus, the first place to begin is to ask yourself - what today is truly sustainable?
Caption: What strategy has stood the test of time and how can I apply this inspiration to my own designs, creations or business?
🐳 Starting a new business called Learn Biomimicry
In 2020, ReWild partnered with Claire Janisch (head of Biomimicry South Africa) and Jess Berliner (now the Managing Director of Learn Biomimicry) to create foundational online courses in biomimicry. The aim is to accelerate and advance the world's transition to sustainable design by using nature as a design guide. Through offering online foundational courses on biomimicry, we collaborate with the world's best biomimicry practitioners and with a network of affiliate partners.
We’ve just launched our brand, which embodies two key concepts, nature as a living library, and the whale - an iconic keystone species representing nature. The Whale also is able to go deep, and communicates vast distances across the world's oceans. Interestingly, whales have been known to create songs, and when a song is well written, it can travel the length and breadth of the world through others singing along, and mimicking it. We’d love to hear your thoughts on the design. PS - A big thanks to Tiger Eels Design for the design!
⛰ Challenges that biomimicry can solve:
Biomimicry holds the possibility to solve complex problems through rethinking. Broadly, these problems can be broken into three parts:
📝 Forms & Designs (i.e. architects and the build environment - buildings, products - straws)
🌀 Processes (i.e. brainstorming ideas and product / service creations)
♼ Systems (i.e leaders building businesses, recycling and using life friendly materials)
Biomimicry thinking adopts a first principles approach (more on that below), through which we can apply nature as our reference. Known formally as the Life’s Principles, these allow us to create a checklist of sorts, to measure our designs, systems and processes.
Biomimicry thinking is what nature is to the world, it flows through everything from the smallest insects to the largest of ecosystems. Pinpointing the exact use of biomimicry is difficult, because it is so wide ranging. This has been both a blending and a sticking point as it can really be applied to almost anything.
🐝 How does biomimicry apply to you and your career?
As the world transitions into the decade of restoration, there are emerging opportunities to recreate traditional businesses, old systems, and outdated processes. To design a future that is conducive to live, we need to start with the right reference. Let’s take a forest for example. What is more sustainable than a forest? There is no unemployment in a forest, the sun’s energy is consistently converted and stored sustainably, and there is no waste.
Biomimicry applies to any career that involves design, building or business. It allows us to rethink the way we solve problems with a first principles approach. It is a guide, and a toolset that ensures what we design, create and do in the world goes beyond sustainability. It allows you and I to create a future that is wilder, cleaner and ensures we take care of our most valuable asset - Gaia. Beyond just the built environment, Biomimicry allows you to develop environmental ethic for the living world, which is found when one begins the journey of seeing the living world as more than commodity, but a a mentor
If you are interested in learning biomimicry, you can find out more here.
🍯 In Summary:
Biomimicry is a practice that learns from and mimics the strategies found in nature to solve human design challenges
Any strategy that has lasted for millions of years is worth taking seriously
If we ask what is truly sustainable, we arrive at the principles of life
Biomimicry is the building blocks of our own understanding of sustainability
Reasoning from Biomimicry allows us to step outside our conventional wisdom and bring to life new designs and innovations. When you really understand how the principles at work, you can decide if the existing methods make sense. Often they don’t.
Nature holds the answers to questions we’ve yet learnt how to ask, thus we need to ask better questions.
Thanks for reading,
Wild regards
Alistair and the ReWilders
PS - And just for laughs,
great piece, and well written alistair!