Biomimicry Guild | Biomimicry Institute
Janine Benyus
Janine Benyus is a natural sciences writer, innovation consultant, and author of six books, including her latest − Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. In Biomimicry, she names an emerging discipline that seeks sustainable solutions by emulating nature's designs and processes (e.g., solar cells that mimic leaves, agriculture that models a prairie, businesses that run like redwood forests).
Janine has cultivated a deep knowledge of the natural world, beginning with direct observation in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, continuing in habitats from Maine to West Virginia where she worked as a backcountry guide, and now, in her home wilds of Montana.
In addition to her biomimicry work, Janine teaches interpretive writing, lectures at the University of Montana, and works towards restoring and protecting wild lands. She serves on a number of land use committees in her rural county, and is president of Living Education, a nonprofit dedicated to place-based living and learning.
Janine has received several awards including Rachel Carson Environmental Ethics Award, the Lud Browman Award for Science Writing, the Science Writing in Society Journalism Award, the Barrows and Heinz Distinguished Lectureships, and has been honored as one of TIME International's Heros of the Environment.
An educator at heart, Janine believes that the more people learn from nature’s mentors, the more they’ll want to protect them. This is why she writes, speaks, and revels in describing the wild teachers in our midst.
In 1998, Janine co-founded the innovation consultancy called Biomimicry Guild.
The Biomimicry Guild is the only innovation company in the world to use a deep knowledge of biological adaptations to help designers, engineers, architects, and business leaders solve design and engineering challenges sustainability.
Clients have included Arup Engineers, Carollo Engineers, Consorta, General Electric, General Mills, Gensler Architects, Herman Miller, Hewlett Packard, HOK Architects, IDEO, Interface, Kohler, Levi’s, NASA, Nike, Norm Thompson, Novell, Patagonia, Seventh Generation, S.C. Johnson, and Shore Bank Pacific Bank.
Janine recently founded the non-profit Biomimicry Institute and currently serves as president on its board.
The Biomimicry Institute is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to naturalize biomimicry in the culture by promoting the transfer of ideas, designs, and strategies from biology to sustainable human systems design.
Janine is currently creating the Biomimicry Design Portal -- a public database of biological literature organized by design function. She is also developing a “biology-taught- functionally” course for engineers and designers, the only biology most will encounter in their university education.