Janine Benyus – Becoming a Welcome Species: Biomimicry and the Art of Generous Design

Apr 10, 2025

 If humans are to come home to this planet, we need to

Janine Benyus – Becoming a Welcome Species: Biomimicry and the Art of Generous Design

Apr 10, 2025

 If humans are to come home to this planet, we need to become a welcome species, a gift-giver to the places we inhabit. Janine Benyus, the world-renowned “Godmother of Biomimicry,” and her colleagues at Biomimicry 3.8 have been demonstrating what it takes to design human settlements—cities, village, homes, and businesses—that create the same ecological gifts as the wildland next door. 

In this presentation, she helps us imagine a city that functions like a forest—storing the same amount of water, cleaning and cooling the same amount of air, cycling as many nutrients, and nurturing as much biodiversity. She also shares inspiring news about some of Biomimicry 3.8’s “Project Positive” initiatives that reveal that this regenerative vision is indeed achievable and within our reach, if we are able to quiet our human cleverness sufficiently to be able to ask: What would Nature do here?

Learn more about Janine Benyus' work at https://biomimicry.net/

Janine Benyus – Becoming a Welcome Species: Biomimicry and the Art of Generous Design

Apr 10, 2025

If humans are to come home to this planet, we need to become a welcome

Janine Benyus – Becoming a Welcome Species: Biomimicry and the Art of Generous Design

Apr 10, 2025

If humans are to come home to this planet, we need to become a welcome species, a gift-giver to the places we inhabit. Janine Benyus, the world-renowned “Godmother of Biomimicry,” and her colleagues at Biomimicry 3.8 have been demonstrating what it takes to design human settlements—cities, village, homes, and businesses—that create the same ecological gifts as the wildland next door. 

In this presentation, she helps us imagine a city that functions like a forest—storing the same amount of water, cleaning and cooling the same amount of air, cycling as many nutrients, and nurturing as much biodiversity. She also shares inspiring news about some of Biomimicry 3.8’s “Project Positive” initiatives that reveal that this regenerative vision is indeed achievable and within our reach, if we are able to quiet our human cleverness sufficiently to be able to ask: What would Nature do here?

Learn more about Janine Benyus' work at https://biomimicry.net/

Apr 10, 2025

 If humans are to come home to this planet, we need to become a welcome species, a gift-giver to the places we inhabit. Janine Benyus, the world-renowned “Godmother

Apr 10, 2025

 If humans are to come home to this planet, we need to become a welcome species, a gift-giver to the places we inhabit. Janine Benyus, the world-renowned “Godmother of Biomimicry,” and her colleagues at Biomimicry 3.8 have been demonstrating what it takes to design human settlements—cities, village, homes, and businesses—that create the same ecological gifts as the wildland next door. 

In this presentation, she helps us imagine a city that functions like a forest—storing the same amount of water, cleaning and cooling the same amount of air, cycling as many nutrients, and nurturing as much biodiversity. She also shares inspiring news about some of Biomimicry 3.8’s “Project Positive” initiatives that reveal that this regenerative vision is indeed achievable and within our reach, if we are able to quiet our human cleverness sufficiently to be able to ask: What would Nature do here?

Learn more about Janine Benyus' work here. 

In this lyrical exploration, John Todd shares the essential principles of ecological design and reveals how mimicking nature’s forms and processes can lead to breakthrough design. He reveals

In this lyrical exploration, John Todd shares the essential principles of ecological design and reveals how mimicking nature’s forms and processes can lead to breakthrough design. He reveals the design secrets behind his award-winning eco-industrial park in Burlington, Vermont, and his strategies to clean up bodies of water from the marshes around Lake Champlain to the canals of Venice and South China. The main allies in his natural sewage treatment systems are native plants that help grow and feed bacteria, break down carcinogens, and sequester metals to produce clean water. His job is not to find a simple solution, but to evolve a technological and social framework that functions like a symphonic movement.

This talk was given at the 2002 Bioneers National Conference and is part of the Ecological Design Collection, Vol. 1. 

Since 1990, Bioneers has acted as a fertile hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges.

For decades, scientists have warned about the consequences of deforestation and fossil fuel burning that have led to today’s climate and biodiversity crises. They have also conducted careful

For decades, scientists have warned about the consequences of deforestation and fossil fuel burning that have led to today’s climate and biodiversity crises. They have also conducted careful research that has helped inform development of nature-based solutions. Despite the urgency of the interdependent crises and the agency we have in helping address them, there abound efforts to discredit peer-reviewed climate change science. Dr. Simard’s talk will delve into recent backlash she has experienced over her science that informs climate solutions for the forests of western North America.

This keynote talk was delivered at the 2024 Bioneers Conference. To see other talks from the conference, visit http://www.bioneers.org

The world is poorly designed. But copying nature helps. Biomimicry design, explained with 99% Invisible. Check them out