At the top of the list of challenges for humanity in the 21st century, is the demand for sustainable development. Resources and ecosystems are in decline, while the demand for their services is increasing. We are still dependent on oil, emit carbon and use a low percentage of the raw materials in the primary production processes. A fundamental change is needed in the way we think, plan, produce, consume and end the life of our products. In nature there are substantial answers to the required change.
Nature summons us to a different way of thinking about how we plan, produce, consume and end the life of the products we use, and is a source of optimism about humanity's abilities to respond to the urgent need for sustainable development.
At the top of the list of challenges for humanity in the 21st century, is the demand for sustainable development. Resources and ecosystems are in decline, while the demand for their services is increasing. We are still dependent on oil, emit carbon and use a low percentage of the raw materials in the primary production processes. A fundamental change is needed in the way we think, plan, produce, consume and end the life of our products. In nature there are substantial answers to the required change.
Nature is a source of knowledge for design solutions that enrich the concepts and knowledge of engineers and planners. Biological systems operating under the limitations of life demonstrate, for the most part, innovative and sustainable solutions at the level of structures, processes and the system. The field of biomimicry is currently identified as one of the knowledge bases that may answer the need for developing sustainable technologies. There are many examples of sustainable biomimetic technologies, including technologies that deal with the core environmental issues - energy, matter and water.
In order to support sustainable planning inspired by nature, a number of planning tools have been developed, including the "principles of life" and the "principles of ideality" in nature. These tools make available to the planner strategies and principles that exist in nature and enable their assimilation at the initial stage of the planning process, the planning concept stage.
Alongside the tools developed to support sustainable design inspired by nature, the question remains, are biomimetic solutions necessarily sustainable? A biomimetic designer can copy a certain design solution from nature but carry it out in an unsustainable way, using harmful materials and polluting production processes. It is clear that a biomimetic planning method is not a guarantee of sustainability, and that a conscious process of copying nature's sustainable solutions must be carried out while examining the biological system as part of its environment. At the same time, it is also clear that nature provides us with a different way of thinking that, according to Einstein's famous saying, "We cannot solve problems using the way of thinking that was used when we created them", is necessary for solving challenges.
30 This news is a summary of the review article "Sustainability - A View from Nature" by Yael Helfman Cohen published in the journal Ecology and Environment.
Link to the full review
