As part of its new online feature Ask Today's Expert, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) offers a daily discussion forum on a variety of topics. Today’s host (9/1/2009) was Sherry Ritter of the Biomimicry Guild on “Biomimicry: the eco-design revolution”.
I asked Sherry what she sees as having the most promise with biomimicry in terms of design and materials.
Her answer:
“Here are a few opportunities in green architecture that we think are exciting for incorporating biomimicry:
1) Ecological Performance Standards (EPS). What if a community provided the same ecosystem services as the native habitat? We can study the native habitat, determine some standards that we want to meet, standards like the amount of carbon sequestered, the amount of sunlight reflected, the amount of water captured from rain. Then we can study the local organisms to learn how they have adapted and how they contribute to the ecosystem services. With that knowledge, we can design our buildings, landscapes, and hardscapes to do their share. This type of thinking is just unfolding now, and examples of implementation should be readily available in the next few years.
2) Novel materials like Calera cement or PureBond are revolutionizing how materials are made (process). These products have shown they can be sustainably produced and lower CO2 or toxic emissions common in buildings. Some of these materials are already on the market, like PureBond or Lotus technology for windows, but they typically take anywhere from 5-20 years to bring to market. But when they do hit, they make a big impact. Keep your eyes peeled for new types of adhesives, and “tough” materials that use local processing in the next few years.
3) I’m also looking forward to a time when buildings harvest their energy from the sun or wind. With the innovations taking place thanks to looking to nature for inspiration, we’re getting more efficient and easier to solar cells and wind turbines that don’t require high, steady winds.
There, I limited myself to three of the most promising innovations. There are a lot still that nature can teach us and more and more people are doing what we call “quieting our cleverness” and taking the time to observe and learn.”
Sherry Ritter
