Business & Biomimicry: Looking to Nature for Answers

This week we talked about the innovations being made through Biomimicry. Biomimicry looks to the wonders of the natural world for inspiration in creating and designing more innovative products. Inspired by this new way of thinking, I looked up companies this week that have been incorporating biomimicry into their business.

• Recent changes in our climate has created unpredictable night frosts in Kenya which have caused damages to tea plantations and economic losses for farmers so a team from the University of Utrecht developed HABARI inspired by plants that grew in Kenya. HABARI  works to automatically deploy a mesh substance that covers plants where frost forms and preventing damage and increases resilience to harsh weather conditions. 
• Students from Tung Hai University made the Psephurus Air Cleaner Equipment (PACE) to fight bad air quality in urban areas and give residents a better defense against health risks. PACE was inspired by various animals ranging from the paddlefish to prairie dogs to create a solar-powered air-cleaning device that is incorporated into signage on buildings. 
• ECOncrete is another awesome innovation that mimics natural tide pools and oyster beds to create a coastal defense unit that encourages the growth of a natural marine ecosystem that also protects coastal zones from climate changes. 
• A team from China worked in combating soil erosion problems from the Three Gorges Dam by looking at a kingfisher's third eyelid which is a retractable layer that covers the birds eyes when it dives into the water. The resulting device they created was a mesh that covers soil while it was submerged and flushed with water. 

Sources: “Hungry for Solutions? Here Are Eight Bold New Ideas, Inspired by Nature. – Biomimicry Institute.” Biomimicry Institute, 26 June 2018, biomimicry.org/bgdc_winners_2018/.