What is biomimicry and why use it?

When Leonardo da Vinci carefully observed birds winging their way across the Italian sky, then studied their anatomy to learn the functional strategies which allowed them to do so, he was practicing an early form of biomimicry. After Leonardo, a procession of inventors observed and emulated nature. But the practice “stuck” when a man named George de Mestral looked closely at the hooked barbs of burs in his dog’s fur after a hunting trip. Mimicking those hooks on one strip of fabric and pairing it with loops on another strip provided him with the intellectual property he needed to patent Velcro. He looked. He copied. He flourished. Still, it wasn’t until a sandy-haired natural resource manager, Janine Benyus, wrote her seminal book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature that an entire profession sprang up around the practice of observing nature, then emulating strategies found there to solve challenges in the workplace – sometimes with record profits. Learn what biomimicry is, how it compares to its relatives like bio-inspiration, and the basics of how to apply it to help build more profitable companies and satisfied customers while reducing our impact on Earth.