Biomimicry Global Design Challenge

 

The Biomimicry Global Design Challenge is an annual competition that invites people around the world to address critical sustainability issues using nature as a guide.

 

The challenge is hosted by the Biomimicry Institute, in partnership with the Ray C. Anderson Foundation, and is open to students and professionals around the world. The Institute’s goal is to build an artery of sustainable innovation inspired by nature and to help bring more biomimetic solutions to market.

They do this by running a Global Challenge that provides innovators who care about the planet with the tools and support they need to design creative and elegant solutions to seemingly intractable problems. They then shepherd the most viable solutions to market or implementation by providing incubation support and introducing top teams to governmental, non-governmental organization, and private sector partners.

This year, the Biomimicry Global Design Challenge will focus on food systems. Everything we eat comes from nature, and begins as something growing on land or at sea. While our food is rooted in a vast chain of ecological relationships, it's also part of an increasingly complex and problematic system of our own design. It's a system that has resulted in depleted soils, landfills full of packaging waste and uneaten food, and dependence on expensive inputs, like chemical fertilizers—all while nearly 1 billion people go hungry every day. From seed (or sea) to table and everywhere in between, there's a lot we need to improve.