What do self-cleaning glazing, glasses manufactured by soft chemicals and ECOSTP wastewater treatment have in common? All relate to biomimicry, an approach aimed at solving problems and designing solutions inspired by the principles of life while respecting the biosphere and planetary limits.
Thus, self-cleaning glazing reproduces the superhydrophobic effect observed on the surface of Lotus leaves: a microtextured and very hydrophobic surface which retains neither dirt nor water. Soft chemistry manufactures glass at room temperature, drawing inspiration from biological processes identified in diatoms, microalgae which produce transparent “shells” of silica glass. As for the ECOSTP process, it is inspired by the functioning of the multi-chambered stomach of cows to purify water without electrical power.
The solutions identified by this approach are thus by their very essence economical in materials and energy, robust and resilient, they fit into their environment without degrading it and they do not generate non-reusable waste, in the same way as the processes developed by all living beings over the 3.8 billion years of evolution of life on Earth.
The turning point of the 1990s
This approach to biomimicry has always existed spontaneously in human populations but it has recently become structured and theorized. The term biomimicry itself was first proposed in 1969 by the American biophysicist Otto Herbert Schmitt in the title of his article Some interesting and useful biomimetic transforms.
A major step in structuring the concept was the publication in 1997 of the book by American natural resource management graduate Janine Benuys Biomimicry: when nature inspires sustainable innovations (Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature). The author has grouped and structured numerous heterogeneous approaches such as permaculture, industrial symbiosis, eco-design, etc. and proposed leaving the very technical vision of bionics (an approach which creates technological systems inspired by living things) to build the vision systemic biomimicry, which takes into account the conditions of balance and the interactions between the different elements of the living system studied.
What is biomimicry?
How can we draw inspiration from the principles of life while respecting the biosphere? Biomimicry invites us to place man as a living species among other living species. Explanations.
Under the impetus of this book, think tanks and consulting firms were then created, such as Biomimicry 3.8 and the Biomimicry Institute in the United States, or CEEBIOS (Center of Excellence in Biomimicry of Senlis) in France.
Biomimicry has thus developed and established itself in the global landscape over the last twenty-five years: the technological implementation of the concept was accompanied by a definition by an ISO standard, policies have also taken hold of it and Researchers have begun to provide critical analyses, particularly from the perspective of philosophy and ethics.
Ethical issues
Biomimicry must now prove itself. Simply reproducing technical concepts will not be enough; only the integration of a systemic dimension can respond to environmental issues in a truly sustainable way. Some achievements indicate that it is possible, such as those relating to industrial and territorial ecology or even perma-enterprise type approaches.
This systemic dimension is made visible by the term ecomimicry sometimes used instead of biomimicry: it requires us to be inspired not only by biological functions but by the properties of ecosystems, therefore to take into account the interrelations between species and populations. , the circularity of material and energy flows, frugality in the use of resources, etc.: properties of ecosystems that guarantee respect for the biosphere and planetary limits.
Biomimicry and ecomimimicry must also prove themselves in their capacity to integrate ethical reflection: imitating nature for purely technical applications is just one more instrumentalization of nature.
Many authors, on the contrary, call for a philosophical paradigm shift: to reposition man as a living species among other living species. Because it is the dominant position of man vis-à-vis nature which has resulted in our extractivist, linear and globalized economy, destructive of our living environments and the habitability conditions of the Earth.
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