By Ronnie Miller & Rachel Major
Climate change is one of the most daunting challenges that humanity has ever faced. Bio-inspired design creates a pathway to a regenerative future by looking to nature to solve our most daunting global challenges. NuLeaf Tech takes bio-inspired design to new heights with the circular economy by unlocking the power - and wealth - of recycled wastewater with easy to use systems that can expand to any scale.
To Conquer or To Coexist?
From resource scarcity to runaway climate change, many of the more unpleasant aspects of the world are our own doing. In the face of such repetitive failure we must re-examining the actions we take as a species without - literally - a care in the world.
Industrialization has left air pollution, environmental disasters, increasing disease rates, and growing scarcity for billions worldwide in its wake - and it’s just the tip of iceberg. We tried to conquer nature, not coexist with it, and human decency was one of the greatest casualties.
Perhaps the problems is that our infrastructure and technology is largely based on human cleverness - and selfishness - alone. As we look elsewhere for a different type of mentor, we begin to wonder what we’d look for. Age? Wisdom? Someone who has walked the same path?
What about nature? The very thing we’re trying to conquer? Age and experience are some of the many things nature has in abundance.
Nature as a Mentor
Earth formed nearly 5 billion years ago as a lifeless boiling rock of lava hurtling through space.
That rock eventually cooled, but throughout numerous ice ages, volcanic eruptions, disastrous famines, droughts, earthquakes, meteors, the Earth has (literally, in some cases) had a lot thrown at it. Yet still, creatures on this planet -- and the planet itself -- have prevailed through natural selection, evolution, and adaptation - a continuous cycle of research, development, and execution. Which brings us to our main point: the Earth knows what it’s doing.
From staying cold, to staying warm, to conserving water and energy, the hardiness and strength of life on Earth is nothing short of extraordinary. All this is accomplished with humble green chemistry and sustainable manufacturing. Nature’s economy is not only profitable and boisterous but regenerative, circular, and, funnily enough, eco-friendly.
We are only limited by human imagination - and our ability to learn from nature’s methods.
This concept of listening to nature as a mentor is known as biomimicry. Although the term was coined in the 90’s, the concept isn’t new. Early examples range from Leonardo Da Vinci and the Wright Brothers looking to birds to learn to fly and the invention of velcro based on plant spurs. Today, it spreads into NASA’s “space gripping” gloves based on geckos and gun vests made of spider silk that are stronger than kevlar to some of the fastest trains on earth modeled after a bird’s beak to fashion designers looking to Polar Bears to create better insulated fabrics.
In the 20 or so years since biomimicry became a specific science, it has launched a movement that is eye-opening not only in its diversity but it’s ferocity as well.
A Bioinspired World
So why hasn’t it solved all our problems yet? Frankly, we often don’t understand the ecological, biochemical, and quantum processes in nature’s toolbox. The answers are right under our noses but we’ve forgotten how to smell the roses.
Up until now we have also focused on the many technological marvels nature displays, but our social structures are equally important. The world is fractured by racism, sexism, and poverty, and much of this is a result of the walls we have built against our fellow brethren.
In a world divided nature collaborates across biology, engineering, and artistry to build our lively world filled with countless different species and environmental interactions. While competition can breed innovation, leveraging diversity is what is key for longevity.
To embrace biomimicry, we must bring all sorts of solutions - and people - together. Perhaps it is not such a small coincidence then that biology has one of the highest percentages of women and people of color in a STEM field.
We can build a bioinspired world has cities as lush oases filled with trickling, clean water and a snack from a communal garden can be found around every corner. Air is safe to breathe, everywhere, and there is little need for regulatory bodies that determine what quantities of toxic chemicals can remain in our food supply. Business is booming better than ever before based on infrastructure that supports a circular and regenerative economy to eliminate waste and poverty.
Nature shows us this better world is possible and, in fact, already exists.
This is what NuLeaf sees in our inspired world. We take biomimicry to new heights by combining it with the principles of a circular - a no-waste - economy. We provide compact yet expandable water systems that powerfully treat and recycled water all with naturally occurring plants and microbes. These high tech gardens also have a vertical farming attachment and create bioenergy. We’ve tapped into nature’s genius to to find new sources of wealth in the $91.5 billion global water treatment and recycling markets.