by Janine Benyus
review by Nicole Bassett
Janine Benyus is a biologist who looks at the world though a very different lens. She takes the reader to a time where nature is respected, observed, learned from and echoed rather than controlled and manipulated as is done today. The main thesis of her book is for humans to mimic the workings of nature to further developments. Nature through millions of years of evolution and adaptation has developed this incredibly complex web with so many secrets of survival and intricate discoveries. She suggests humans could learn a thing or two to solve the questions we are plagued with today. Nature holds the answers to sustainability, we only have engage it to find them. However it is not an easy task as Benyus finds out; by following scientists of all disciplines she watches the slow unfolding of their discoveries as they delve deep into the workings of nature.
The book focuses on six main areas where scientists are looking to nature to help solve the problems the world is facing today: Agriculture, Energy, Materials, Medicine and Nutrition, Computers and Business.
My Area of Study is Environmental Responsibility in Business, specifically taking the lessons of the earth and creating alternative business structures to reshape corporate business. So the chapter that I enjoyed the most was that on the same subject, business. There are lessons in nature that business can adapt, for instance prospering without waste, the need for cooperation, and the importance of diversity.
Benyus sees the future of business looking like a complex and sustainable old growth redwood forest. The forest is our guide we can turn to, to show us how balances of exchange can produce a health thriving economy. The redwood forest represents a type III species that is, “designed to stay on the land in a state of relative equilibrium, taking out no more than they put in.” Unlike the less mature ecosystems, which are where our economy is right now (Type I and Type II), the final stage of a natural ecosystem has achieved true balance that allows all the plants and animals to live together, feeding off and providing food for each other. (pg 250)
So what if businesses were like this mature ecosystem. Where there is no waste, but a proprior of food for another industry. To begin we must ask what are the services we need? Then, how do we get them in the most eco-efficient way? For instance, I want a warm house, currently I would turn up my thermostat and energy runs through the power lines and operates an electric heater. My house becomes warm, but the electricity came from a coal plant that burn’s coal, which pollutes the air. What if homes were built around factories and were heated from excess heat from the factory process? Maybe my house was designed to absorb heat in the cold months and repeall it in the hot or retrofitted to be completely efficient with no heat lost. There are many solutions and figuring out the right balance between our many options is what a mature ecosystem does. Undertsnading how to best alter business does not have to be hard. We have examples of sustainability all around us therefore we can constantly measure the success of our businesses in comparison to nature. If there are by-products going to waste then we are doing something wrong because that does not happen in nature.
Benyus outlines 10 commandments that she has taken from the mature ecosystem of the redwood forest that business should adapt to obtain sustainability.
1. Use waste as a resource
2. Diversify and cooperate to fully use the habitat
3. Gather and use energy efficiently
4. Optimize rather than maximize
5. Use materials sparingly
6. Don’t foul their nests (live and use the same space)
7. Don’t draw down resources
8. Remain in balance with the biosphere
9. Run on information
10. Shop locally
(pg 254)
Having these commandments to reference is extremely important because it provides a working alternative to the linear resource extracting based economy that is functioning currently. If change is to happen there needs to be a goal to reach. We are lucky because the one Benyus proposes we mimic has had millions of years to reach perfection, the redwood forest. Businesses should incorporate the Biomimicry Ten Commandments into their environmental management system and corporate policy to insure that the economy will start to shift towards sustainability.
In reading the book I thought of my own biomimicry analogy for business: Business as the “Heart” of the economy. In a human body the heart is the most important organ. The heart (Business) directs the flow of blood to every part of the body. It works with the Arteries which delivers blood full of oxygen (products/services) to the capillaries which are in need of oxygen in order to carry out their functions (consumers). Then the veins bring the oxygen-depleted blood back to the heart to be re-oxidized. And the cycle continues from there, no waste, no excess. Obviously the heart does not work alone and could not because nature has structured it so the heart has perfected its task and relies on other organs whom have perfected theirs. The brain tells the heart when to pump (government, stakeholders) and the lungs to provide the oxygen (the earth). The whole system can move within seconds and every time achieve complete sustainability while providing the functions needed to sustain life. Business should be this pump, that moves goods and services in a balanced way and consumers should be able to trust that business is acting in the best interest of the environment, while providing their needs. The heart is a helpful illustration of a system that works closed-loop and is sustainable.
It was a great tool of Benyus’s to provide examples of businesses that are adapting the ideas of eco-industrialism because it gives credit to those who are trying and hope to those who want to keep this trend going. The more common examples of eco-business practices become, the closer we will be that mature redwood forest system. Nature has shown us that if you are not able to adapt then you will be edited out of the gene pool; humans are not immune to the laws of nature. (pg 261) If our extracting and polluting industries do not adapt, then there is no chance for human survival and no economy will flourish. When the resources are no longer there, neither are the products. It is time to bring back the interconnectedness of the world and for people to understand the earth’s cycles, the processes and our part in them. Only then will we learn to move forward.
Benyus has hope for humans and illustrates this through the idea of biomimicry as well, for people provide an ecological gift to the world the same as nature does. People have self-reflecting brains, we are able to learn, we are well shaped to mimic what we see and hear. We have been given the tools to make the difference. (pg 291)
The quest is a good one, to help humans evolve, learn to adapt to the natural rhythms and cycles of the earth, to become sustainable in every aspect of human life. Business can achieve this, hopefully, by looking to nature as the goal. The redwood forest has already developed the targets and objectives we must achieve. And by doing so we could function like a complex ecosystem that is sustainable and most importantly adaptable to the changing world.
Benyus, Janine M. Biomimicry; Innovation inspired by nature. New York: HarperCollins, 1997.
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