Biologically Inspired Design for the Environment

Abstract

Design for Environment (DfE or ecodesign) aims at developing products with an enhanced environmental performance, without compromising functionality and other key requirements (such as cost and quality). Common DfE guidelines for product design include: reduction of material diversity, extension of useful life (e.g., by enabling repair and upgrade), avoidance of toxic materials and nonrenewable resources, use of recycled components, and ease of disassembly and recyclability after the end of useful life. DfE requires the integration of environmental considerations into the traditional design processes, supporting decisions that could enhance the environmental profile of the product. Biologicallyinspired-design (BID) teams identify and isolate the core principles of relevance for systems, products, and processes from the bioworld for consideration and possible incorporation during each of the design stages. Synergies and potential trade-offs existing between DfE and BID must be considered when integrating the two methodologies into Biologically Inspired Design for Environment for the design of products and systems.

Disordered chiral structures

“…The foregoing conclusion reaffirms that precision is not a hallmark of bioworld structures, but adequacy is. 20 This provides opportunities for practitioners of engineered biomimicry to not only copy bioworld structures and processes, but also improve thereupon, by either improving functional performance or incorporating additional functionalities or both.…”

Who owns NATURE? Conceptual appropriation in discourses on climate and biotechnologies

“…Biomimicry is growing in popularity due to the increasing demand for sustainable technologies (Gerbaud et al, 2022;Lenau and Lakhtakia, 2021;Palombini and Muthu, 2022).…”

“…Biomimicry is growing in popularity due to the increasing demand for sustainable technologies (Gerbaud et al, 2022; Lenau and Lakhtakia, 2021; Palombini and Muthu, 2022). Also known as biomimetics or bio-inspired design, biomimicry (from the Greek bios , life, and mimesis , imitation) consists in the conscious emulation of biological models in technical design, with the aim of solving today's technical and ecological challenges (Benyus, 1997).…”