In September 2008, the Biomimicry Guild and global architectural firm HOK formed an alliance that may dramatically expand the speed with which nature’s innovations are integrated into the planning and design of buildings, communities and cities worldwide. HOK and the Guild are currently working together to integrate biomimicry into the Lavasa community being developed near Pune, India, and exploring potential project collaborations in Saudi Arabia and North America.

Lavasa, being led by the Indian engineering and construction company HCC (Hindustan Construction Company), will create four new towns on 12,500 acres in the mountains about 45 minutes from Pune over the next 12 years. The award-winning project is the first, and largest, hill city to be built in post-independence India, the firm says, and is expected to cost Rs 1400 billion by the time it is finished.

"Together with HOK, we are looking at what it means to be a bio-inspired company in the architecture space," says Biomimicry Guild co-founder Janine Benyus. "And I think the answer to that question is really going to be something new in the world. Because making a bio-inspired product is one thing; making a bio-inspired city begins to change the world."

Established by Benyus and Dr. Dayna Baumeister in 1998, Biomimicry studies nature's best ideas and uses them to solve human problems. The Guild has been helping companies and communities find, vet, understand and emulate life's time-tested strategies, in order to design sustainable products and processes that create conditions conducive to all life. . "Buildings account for about 50% of total U.S. energy use, and our greatest collective impact will come from applying biomimicry to the planning and design of buildings, communities and cities -- at every scale and in every region," Baumeister says.

HOK, a global architectural firm that specializes in planning, design and delivery solutions for buildings and communities, was founded in 1955 and has a collaborative network of 29 offices worldwide. Its expertise includes architecture, engineering, interiors, planning, lighting, graphics, facilities planning and assessment and construction services. HOK contributed to the development of the U.S. Green Building Council's original LEED® rating system, has adapted LEED to new building types and regions, and authored the influential "HOK Guidebook to Sustainable Design."

"We believe biomimicry will not only help us significantly reduce the environmental impact of our projects, but also has the potential to help define a whole new sustainable standard for our profession," says HOK Sustainable Design Director Mary Ann Lazarus. "Because biomimicry addresses critical environmental issues at the habitat scale, it gives us lessons on how to achieve significant results -- even restorative outcomes -- at all scales."

HOK and the Biomimicry Guild began working together in 2004. Both organizations have collaborated on several projects, including HOK's participation in the 2008 "City of the Future" competition, sponsored by The History Channel, to design the city of Atlanta in 2108. 

This story was adapted from HOK and Biomimicry Guild Form Alliance to Integrate Nature's Innovations in the Design of Buildings, Communities and Cities Worldwide, St. Louis, Mo., and Helena, Mt., Marketwire, Sept. 15, 2008, and from information on the Lavasa website. The picture comes from the Lavasa website. For an explanation of why this new ecological design work is so significant, see the article below which appeared in the June 2009 newsletter of the Biomimicry Institute.

Ecological Performance Standards

By Janine Benyus, Tim McGee, and Sherry Ritter

Think of any city. With each acre developed, almost an acre’s worth of ecosystem services is lost. Roofs reflect sunlight, rather than capturing it for energy. Carbon is released into the atmosphere rather than sequestered in vegetation or soils. Buildings and streets shed rainwater into storm sewers that rush it away, rather than filtering it through wetlands or seeping through soils into ground water.

Now think about that city transformed so that it provides the same ecosystem services as the wild areas surrounding it. This new city fits into the ecosystem. We fit in. This is the basis for ecological performance standards.

Ecological Performance Standards are a new way to incorporate biomimicry into community planning. Basically, Ecological Performance Standards ask human building projects to pull their own ecological weight. Buildings, hardscapes, and landscapes of a community should work together to provide the same level of life-sustaining ecosystem services as an intact native ecosystem.

What's different is that now we're asking our buildings and infrastructure to do their part, instead of asking our green spaces to do ALL our ecosystem services for us. It's the step toward having building projects that not only meet their own needs—they actually give back to the region. Though the city may look very different from the native ecosystem, it should actually function the same way. When cities and ecosystems are functionally indistinguishable, that's when we will have truly mimicked at an ecosystem level. That's when we will be a welcome species.

The Biomimicry Institute's sister company, The Biomimicry Guild, has been working on a development project in India called Lavasa. The goal for Lavasa is a human settlement that actually enhances local ecology by functioning at least as well as a healthy, highly functioning moist deciduous forest. It’s a bold goal, but it’s the first step on the journey to fitting in.

The Guild chose a subset of relevant ecosystem services and described various indicators as measures of whether or not that ecosystem service is functioning. The Ecological Performance Standards set the aspiration goal, then describe how to set up monitoring stations to measure indicators such as gallons of water retained after a monsoon, number of native tree species regenerating, reduction in number of bare spots (soil erosion indicator), millimeters of soil created, etc.

The Lavasa development will also look to the geniuses of the moist deciduous forest—animals, plants, microbes, and systems—to learn from them how to provide these ecosystem services. These will guide innovative design of buildings, hardscapes, and landscapes.

Where possible, the Guild shaped the standards to assist those native species most in need of help, by attempting, for instance, to provide vital corridors for their shelter and migration. It is an immense honor to help support these species as they support us, and the most useful way to thank them for their unpaid services is to set ecological performance standards for ourselves.

The Biomimicry Institute, based in Missoula, Montana, USA, publishes a monthly newsletter. Benyrus has just been chosen as one of nine Champions of the Earth for 2009 by the United Nations Environment Program, for her role in science and innovation.