Join the Live Watch Party for “The Promise of Biomimicry” Premiering January 23

SAN FRANCISCO, January 21, 2020 /3BL Media/ — Documentary producers Tree Media, who brought feature films like “The 11th Hour” and “Ice on Fire” to viewers worldwide, have created a new short film in partnership with the Biomimicry Institute called “The Promise of Biomimicry.” The 20-minute film premieres this Thursday, January 23 during a live, global watch party at 12pm PT / 3pm ET at biomimicry.org/the-promise-of-biomimicry/. Viewers can also tune in on the Institute’s Facebook, YouTube, and Vimeo channels. 

The film documents how young entrepreneurs are utilizing biomimicry to solve human sustainability challenges. Janine Benyus, co-founder of the Institute and author of the acclaimed book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, walks viewers through the emerging discipline and highlights how a new generation of innovators can look to the natural world for design and engineering “blueprints.”   Learn how the Institute is creating an open access platform for nature-inspired education through AskNature, the curated online library featuring thousands of nature’s strategies and hundreds of bio-inspired applications to practice biomimicry; the Biomimicry Global Design Challenge that offers education through guided practice; the Biomimicry Launchpad fueling startups with tools they need to form a company with a nature-inspired solution; and the Ray of Hope Prize®, where a young company is given a $100,000 investment to commercialize their biomimetic product or service.   “The film touches on the lives of our team members from around the world, what problems they are trying to fix and how biology has led them on a very different path to innovating. The scale of the problems in front of us — from enough food for all to preserving habitat for the other 8.7 million species on the planet — is immense,” said Beth Rattner, Executive Director of the Institute. “But there is tremendous solace in knowing that there is a nature-based function we can learn from. Our free, open access programs give everyone a chance to make a difference.”   A dozen startup companies are featured in the film, working on bringing their biomimetic innovation to market. From a mosquito-control device called UPOD that is inspired by the bladderwort plant to an eco-friendly approach to sewage treatment that mimics a cow’s digestive system by EcoSTP, these teams are looking to biological strategies to create sustainable solutions for a myriad of challenges humans face.    Nucleário, the 2018-19 winner of the Ray of Hope Prize, also introduces its product that enables large-scale ecological restoration of forests. Inspired by bromeliads (think of the tops of pineapples), Nucleário accumulates rainwater, creates a physical barrier against leaf-cutting ants, and reduces the use of herbicides and pesticides. Additional companies featured include Phalanx Insulation, Watchtower Robotics, Aruga Technologies, NexLoop, among several others. As a practice, biomimicry shows designers how to fit in with the surrounding environment sustainably and offers millions of years of “research and development” to tap into for inspiration. As a movement, it gives people hope, because there is relief in knowing solutions exist. To see biomimicry in action and further an understanding of this new way of living, join us this Thursday, January 23 at 12p PT / 3p ET for a live watch party of the short film: The Promise of Biomimicry at biomimicry.org/the-promise-of-biomimicry/.   This film was sponsored by Wyncote Foundation and supported by the Ray C. Anderson Foundation. To see the first film about biomimicry directed by Tree Media’s Leila Conners, which was made possible by Leonardo DiCaprio and Executive Producer Oliver Stanton, visit https://www.treemedia.com/biomimicry.   For more information on nature-inspired design, visit biomimicry.org. And to join the movement and solve for a challenge, register for the 2020 Biomimicry Global Design Challenge. The next great idea may be waiting right outside.   About the Biomimicry Institute   The Biomimicry Institute is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization founded in 2006 that offers open access education for nature-inspired solutions. The Institute gives people a way to design for a healthy planet with AskNature.org, a free online resource that contains strategies found in nature and examples of ways they are used in design. It also hosts a Biomimicry Global Design Challenge and Youth Design Challenge to provide project-based education, a Launchpad for entrepreneurship to bring designs to market, and a Global Biomimicry Network to connect innovators. To support its work and get involved in the biomimicry movement, visit biomimicry.org and connect with the team on social media.