Sustainability

Through
Biomimicry
and Nature-
Inspired
Engineering
 The ability to maintain or improve systems and processes over the
long term in a way that meets present needs without
Sustainability compromising the ability of future generations to meet their
own needs.
 When hiking in the Alps in 1941, a Swiss inventor named George de Mestral
became annoyed by the repeating problem of burrs sticking to his socks and
The Velcro
his dog’s fur. He looked at the annoyances under a microscope and
discovered the hook-and-loop structure that became the basis for Velcro.
Challenges
Complexity of Natural Systems:
• Understanding Natural Processes: Natural systems are often highly complex and
not fully understood, making it challenging to replicate or adapt these processes
accurately.
• Integration with Human Systems: Integrating nature-inspired designs with
existing human-made systems can be complex and may require substantial
modifications.
Scalability: • From Concept to Application:
• Economic Viability:
 Material Limitations: Finding or developing materials
that mimic the properties of natural substances can be
challenging.
Technological Manufacturing Constraints: Existing manufacturing
Limitations: technologies may not be capable of producing nature-
inspired designs, requiring new techniques and
processes.
 Interdisciplinary Collaboration

• Knowledge Integration: Successful nature-inspired engineering often

requires collaboration across disciplines, including biology, engineering,
chemistry, and materials science.
• Communication Barriers: Effective communication and collaboration among
scientists, engineers, and designers from different fields can be difficult.
 • Bioprospecting: The search for and
commercialization of natural processes and
Ethical and
materials can lead to bioprospecting, raising
Environmental ethical and legal concerns.
Concerns: • Environmental Impact: While nature-
inspired solutions aim to be sustainable,
they must be carefully evaluated to ensure
they do not inadvertently harm the
environment.
Considerations

• Sustainability Metrics:
Measuring impact and continuous
improvement
• Regulation and Standards:
Compliance and setting new
standards
• Creating awareness: Education
and raising awareness
Modern biomimicry

• Modern biomimicry is far more than just copying nature’s shapes.

• It includes systematic design and problem-solving processes, which are now
being refined by scientists and engineers in universities and institutes
worldwide.
• The first step in any of these processes is to clearly define the challenge we’re
trying to solve.
• Then we can determine whether the problem is related to form, function, or
ecosystem.
• Next, we ask what plant, animal, or natural process solves a similar problem
most effectively
Sustainable Nature Inspired Examples
Energy EfficiencyAlgorithm Inspired by Honeybees

The Challenge
• HVAC systems are found in almost all major buildings, but they
can be the biggest energy consumer, and therefore the biggest
cost, of running a building.
• Different types of building equipment usually operate in isolation
from each other, obeying a single thermostat or a timer that has
no knowledge of what else is currently operating in the facility.
• Since these loads do not communicate with each other, they often
operate simultaneously–unnecessarily boosting energy usage and
increasing costs.
Innovation Details

• SwarmLogic® is an energy efficiency technology that integrates

with a building’s controls to dramatically and instantly reduce
electric costs.
• Swarm Logic controllers establish a mesh wireless network among
power-consuming appliances, enabling them to communicate
among themselves autonomously.
• Using a custom algorithm inspired by honeybee communication,
the connected appliances spread out energy demand among
them.
Biological Model

• Honeybees communicate with one another and coordinate individual

behaviors to form a collective organization that efficiently acts to build hives
and feed their colonies.
Benefits
• Reduced energy consumption
• Reduced cost

Applications
• HVAC systems
• Smart buildings

UN Sustainable Development Goals Addressed

• Goal 11: Sustainable Cities & Communities

• Goal 12: Responsible Production & Consumption

 Electronic Displays
Inspired by Butterflies

The challenge:
Current display technologies rely on energy-intensive screens that are lit from
behind. Prolonged exposure to these devices can cause eye strain, headaches,
and other health issues.

Innovation:
The electronic display reflects light from its surroundings to create a more natural
looking, less energy-intensive screen. It mimics the technique used by butterflies
to create color by scattering and reflecting light that hits microstructures on their
wings. The technology is known as ‘plasmonic color display’ because the screen
is made up of self-assembled plasmonics.
Biological Model
Butterflies do not use pigment to create the bright color on their wings.
Their wings have layered microstructure that causes light waves that hits the surface of
the wing to diffract and interfere with each other so that certain color wavelengths
cancel out while others, are intensified and reflected.
Benefits
• Reduced glare
• Reduced energy use

Applications
Electronic devices
UN Sustainable Development Goals Addressed
Goal 3: Good Health & Wellbeing
Franklin, Daniel, et al. "Self-assembled plasmonics for angle-independent
structural color displays with actively addressed black states." Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences 117.24 (2020): 13350-13358.
Goal 9: Industry Innovation & Infrastructure
 Efficient Wind-Powered UAV
Inspired by Albatross

The Challenge
• Unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, have many important applications, one of
them being ocean monitoring.
• Increasing the endurance and viability of UAVs in long-term missions remains a
concern.
Biomimicry Story
Albatross birds have long wings that help them fly quickly through the air to
avoid predators and capture prey. Their wings function through a mechanical
process called “transfer of momentum”, utilizing the lift of the wind to propel
forward. This way, the bird is able to stay afloat without flapping its wings.
 The UNAv, an efficient air-water UAV, borrows features from both
sailboats and albatrosses, using the wind to travel across the water.

Bousquet, Gabriel D., Michael S. Triantafyllou, and Jean-Jacques E. Slotine. "The unav, a wind-powered uav for ocean monitoring: Performance, control and validation." 2018 IEEE International
Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). IEEE, 2018.
Benefits
• Faster
• Reduced energy usage
• Autonomous
Applications
• Aviation
• Boats
• Surveillance systems
UN Sustainable Development Goals Addressed
• Goal 9: Industry Innovation & Infrastructure
 Mathematical Sampling Technique
Inspired by Rock Ants

The Challenge
• Sampling methods used in many probability-based algorithms do not track
previously sampled components. This methodology leads to inefficiency
because the program cannot remember what it has already done and could end
up repeating the process.
Developed by University of Bristol
Innovation Details
Rock ants leave chemical trails as they explore new spaces. These trails tell other
ants where not to go, to avoid exploring the same area twice.
Applications???
 Sustainability

Nature Inspired
Idea
Implementation

Bridging the Gap

Thank You…