Bioneers: Ecological Design

This leading young change-maker turned entrepreneur is showing how, in this generation, we can shift from fossil fuels to a world 100% powered by clean energy, and we can do it in a way that makes all of us richer, healthier and happier. The only way it will happen is if we get involved and take power into our own hands. Solar Mosaic, the company he co-founded, is employing revolutionary crowdfunding techniques to democratize investment opportunities and spread distributed energy. This speech was presented at the 2013 Bioneers National Conference in San Rafael, CA. 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. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information, please visit http://bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

The President-CEO of PAX Scientific reveals how scientists and designers are taking cues from nature to find breakthrough solutions. Take sunscreen modeled on hippo sweat. How might we borrow the recipe? It’s time for a fresh look at technology and design, with nature as our mentor. This speech was given at the 2013 Bioneers Annual Conference. 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. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

It’s time to create the green molecular building blocks that make green technology truly clean, from raw materials and production to social justice. World-renowned green chemist John Warner illustrates how we can create a new generation of biomimetic and green molecular building blocks to help us reach the “world we want.” A founder of Green Chemistry, he has published over 200 patents, papers and books. He’s founder, President and Chief Technology Officer of Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry, and co-founder of Beyond Benign, a nonprofit for sustainability and green chemistry education. This speech was given at the 2014 Bioneers National Conference. 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. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

The acclaimed biologist, innovation consultant and author Janine Benyus illuminates how the biomimicry community can collaborate with nature on a hot list of challenges that just can’t wait. Invoking leading-edge science, she shows how biological networks can provide a model to spread good ideas far and wide. This speech was given at the 2013 Bioneers Annual Conference. 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. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

Envision what our world would and could look like if we actually started reading and following the directions contained in “Life’s Operating Manual.” Co-founder with Janine Benyus of the Biomimicry Guild and Biomimicry Institute, Dayna Baumeister provides an eagle’s-eye view of biomimicry breakthroughs using ecological design and nature-inspired technologies that emulate nature’s profound design sophistication. She has worked in the field of biomimicry with Janine Benyus since 1998 and designed and teaches the world’s first Biomimicry Professional Certification Program. Introduction by Byrony Schwan, Executive Director of the Biomimicry Institute. This speech was given at the 2011 Bioneers National Conference. 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. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

The visionary founder of the Living Building Challenge illuminates the game-changing impacts of the world's most advanced and provocative green building certification program. He chronicles its core principles, its global influence on designers, builders, communities and educational systems, and its manifest progress transforming the interface between human habitats and the natural world into a virtuous cycle. This speech took place at the 2013 Bioneers Annual Conference and is part of the Ecological Design Collection, Vol. 2. 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. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

The Buckminster Fuller Institute Board Chair illustrates the geocentric view of the universe as our renewed cosmic model. Earth – our observational center – is also our ecological center. Yet we can embrace systems thinking as far-reaching as the universe and find a restorative path to our future - knowing “the universe we design for is the universe we’re going to get.” This speech was given at the 2013 Bioneers National Conference and is part of the Eco-Design Collection, Vol. 2. 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. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

Growing up in Cleveland, Watson would notice black ash from the smoldering river raining down on him as he waited for the bus. Industry and government’s failure to address the pollution crisis followed him into his adult life when he learned about Buckminster Fuller’s idea of using nature’s design strategies to leverage energy and create significant positive effects. In state government and the private sector, Watson’s leadership has since manifested in urban planning, wind energy development, and launching community gardens and farmers markets. This speech was given at the 2008 Bioneers National Conference. 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. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

Paul Stamets describes a series of epiphanies around how to shape our world with fungi in ways that are not just sustainable, but regenerative, resourceful and fun. He shares his patented application of mycelium as an alternative to synthetic pesticides; his regenerative Life Boxes that serve as shipping materials until you add water and soil; and his newest invention -- mushroom cultivation centers that convert fungal sugars into ethanol while providing resources for enriching soil, growing food and metabolizing pollution in an environment that encourages community participation. Mushrooms will never look the same after you see this one. This speech was presented at the 2006 Bioneers National Conference and is part of the Ecological Design, Vol. 2 and Protecting and Restoring Nature, 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. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

In 1978 the city of Los Angeles was hit by a hundred-year flood. In 1980 it was hit again. The devastation that followed paralleled the effects of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In this groundbreaking presentation, Andy Lipkis describes the unlikely partnerships that arise in emergency situations and the lessons we can learn from ecology to help overcome the fractured condition of city agencies. When we treat an entire city like an ecosystem, he explains, we can combine the integrated efforts of urban planning and resource management to effect radical change in systems of education, infrastructure and community revitalization. This speech was presented at the 2005 Bioneers National Conference in San Rafael, CA and is part of the Ecological Design Collection, Vol. 2. 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. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

Leaders around the world are increasingly recognizing ecosystems as natural capital assets that supply life-support services of priceless value. The challenge is to turn this recognition into incentives and institutions that will guide wise investments in natural capital on a large scale. Gretchen Daily illuminates advances being made on three key fronts: the development of new science and technical tools for valuing Nature, such as InVEST, a software system developed by the Natural Capital Project; new policies and finance mechanisms being implemented worldwide; and engaging leaders in forging a deep and lasting transformation. This speech was given at the 2012 Bioneers National Conference and is part of the Eco Design Vol. 2 and Protecting and Restoring Nature Vol. 1 Collections. 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. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

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. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

Applying the lens of nature-inspired design, Janine Benyus shares some of nature’s brilliant answers to the world’s most pressing environmental concerns, illustrated by inspiring real-world applications. Her Biomimicry Institute is guiding business transformation – the Next Industrial Revolution – by bringing biomimicry to the design table, and it’s starting to transform how businesses design and manufacture products. A waste-free, nontoxic, ultra-efficient technology is possible, if only we keep reminding ourselves to ask how nature would do it. This speech was given at the 2003 Bioneers Annual Conference. 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. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

Beijing-based filmmaker John Liu proposes that healthy ecosystem function is a superior measure of economic health, in contrast with the rate at which we produce and consume manufactured goods. Showing stunning footage, Liu chronicles the remarkable restoration of China's denuded Loess Plateau, once the "Garden of Eden" of China. He illustrates how the act of restoring soil fertility restores the hydrological cycle, a process that was radically disrupted by thousands of years of slash-and-burn agriculture and overgrazing. These communities' intervention not only revitalized the soil, water and air, but also spurred a thriving local economy and higher rates of education. This speech was presented at the 2011 Bioneers Annual Conference and is part of the Ecological Design, Vol. 1 and Protecting and Restoring Nature, Vol. 1 Collections. 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. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

One of the world's leading energy experts and visionaries, Amory Lovins makes a winning case for powering our future by "reinventing fire," also the title of his 2012 book. Brimming with scientific data and a pithy and dry wit, he demonstrates the practical path away from our fossil fuel based economy. By integrating transportation, buildings, industry and electricity, and combining these with new business strategies, he believes we can simultaneously make the world safer, healthier and wealthier, for all of society. His remarkable vision for smarter and fairer energy policy has also persuaded top business leaders, the Department of Defense, and decision makers in Washington D.C. This speech was presented at the 2011 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. To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year. For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org and stay in touch via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Bioneers.org) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bioneers).

Naturalist, inventor and entrepreneur Jay Harman shows how nature's favorite form, the spiral, is ubiquitous in nature: from the shape of galaxies to the flow of blood in our veins, how air moves through our lungs, and plants and flowers unfold. Movement wants to follow the path of least resistance. He shows how the spiral correlates with the fabled Golden Mean and the Fibonacci sequence, the mathematical representation of aesthetic beauty. This speech took place at the 2004 National Bioneers 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.