What is GEOMIMICRY?

LISTEN TO THIS PODCAST!

Anybody immersed in the world of sustainability has probably heard of biomimicry. Biomimicry is defined as the manufacture of products inspired by nature. It's a powerful design philosophy, but behind the idea of biomimicry is a riddle.  There is an implicit recognition that our current manufacturing methods don't mimic nature. And that leaves a question, “What is behind our current approach to production?”

That’s a good question and one posed to me by a Chief Sustainability Officer in one of my executive education programs. “If we're not doing biomimicry, what are we doing?” she asked, a question that at first stumped me. I sat there scratching my chin, until I suddenly blurted out, “Geomimicry!”

At that moment I realized our entire industrial economy has been built upon geomimicry. Every time we chisel a brick, forge an iron beam, even distil a hydrocarbon, we're engaging in geomimicry.