We humans are incredibly smart. We’ve created satellites, self-driving cars, AI that writes poetry. And yet. When it comes to solving our greatest common crisis, we forget to look to the one who has already solved it: Nature herself.
Today I stood by a tree. An old, crooked, almost slightly leaning tree. And I thought:
That tree has been standing here for 80 years. It produces oxygen, controls water flows, feeds fungi, provides shelter for birds, sequesters carbon, insulates soil, dampens noise … and it does all this without a single PowerPoint presentation.
So why don’t we try to imitate it more?
Biomimetics
This is where biomimetics comes in. A complicated word. But a simple idea:
Look at how nature has solved problems, and copy it.
Termites build houses that ventilate themselves. Whale sharks have skin that repels bacteria without chemicals. Lotus leaves clean themselves without the need for cleaning agents. Forests regulate their microclimate, purify their own water and produce no waste. Self-organizing systems not self-maximizing systems.
And here we are…
We build buildings that require 24/7 climate control.
We create products that cannot be recycled.
We maximize
We call it development.
Nature, a mentor
Perhaps our greatest shortcoming is not technology itself. But humility. We have treated nature as a resource or a backdrop. But it is time to start seeing it as a mentor.
But we are in a hurry now. More and more companies are going to be sustainable. Organizations are pushing. Everyone wants “green solutions”. But do you know what often happens? We streamline the old.
We put solar cells on to power bad ideas. We call it innovation when in fact it is cosmetics. We do not go upstream to the root of the problems. We do not build long-term, long-term sustainable systems.
Biomimetics offers something deeper.
It requires us to rethink from the ground up:
That products should not become waste.
That buildings should behave like ecosystems.
That growth should not mean withdrawal, but adaptation.
It is not a trend. It is not a campaign. It is a different view of life. And do you want to know the most beautiful thing? It has already been tested. Billions of years of research and development. Nature has had its “fail fast” cycles. It has proven what works.
So maybe it is not our role to increase all the time. Maybe our role is to listen. To imitate. To build with, not against.
So the next time you are planning a sustainability project, or sketching something new, go out to a tree. Ask a question. And stand there for a moment longer than feels reasonable. You might get an answer. It might come as wind in the leaves. Or just as a new feeling in your own body. But I promise it will be better than your latest Excel template or PowerPoint plan.
Innovation is remembering how to collaborate with life.
Maybe we’ll meet in the forest.
