The Biomimicry Institute

The fashion industry has made real progress on circularity. Recycling technologies are scaling. Policy frameworks are tightening. The direction of travel is right. But there is a part of the loop that remains largely unaddressed: what happens to textiles after they leave our hands. Not in theory, but materially, chemically, ecologically. Together with The Microfibre Consortium, we have been looking at this question from two directions. TMC's research tracks how fibres continue to fragment and persist in the environment long after disposal, across all fibre types, not just synthetics. The Nature of Fashion pilots in the Netherlands and Germany are developing transformation pathways for the complex, blended, chemically treated waste that conventional recycling cannot handle. What we are finding, independently and together, is the same thing: the textiles we have designed cannot safely disappear. And that points clearly toward what needs to change, both upstream at the design stage, and downstream in how we handle the waste that already exists. We are glad to be working across that boundary with TMC. Read the full article: https://lnkd.in/dv8ucspN

If we asked nature what to do, what would it tell us? "I think nature would say, 'come home.'" – Janine Benyus Episode 1 of the AskNature Podcast is live today. Janine Benyus and Christiana Figueres explore what it looks like to truly listen to the natural world, and why that act of listening might be the most transformative thing we can do right now. 🎧 Stream now on all major streaming platforms. 🔗 https://tr.ee/8g5oicJVkV #AskNaturePodcast #Biomimicry #ChristianaFigueres #JanineBenyus #NatureInspired #SystemsChange #Sustainability #LearningFromNature

Here is an incredible Leadership Retreat opportunity from our dear friends at Biomimicry for Social Innovation. Learn more and register by June 1: https://lnkd.in/e-KDkidH

Circular business models, such as resale and repair, are key to staying competitive, desirable, and resilient. However, the current linear system makes scaling hard. That’s why we’ve endorsed a business statement, convened by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, calling for a policy mix that allows circular business models to scale. This is a crucial step towards making a circular economy for fashion commercially viable and competitive. We’re calling for: 1. Reduced VAT and eliminated sales tax on resold products and repair services 2. Reduced labour taxes and an incentive package that includes labour tax credits for jobs involved in resale and repair operations 3. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policy to help create separate collection and sorting infrastructure at scale Read the full business statement: https://lnkd.in/et4cVnky 

If we asked nature, what would it tell us about the situation we're in, and how would it offer us solutions? “I think nature would say, ‘come home.’” – Janine Benyus As we AskNature for guidance through today’s climate and social crises, Janine Benyus and Christiana Figueres remind us that we also need to have the humility to listen. In one week, tune in to Episode 1 of the AskNature Podcast to explore a web of connections between reconnection with nature and systems change.  Listen May 27th on all major streaming platforms.  https://lnkd.in/gDC-RDBJ #AskNaturePodcast #Biomimicry #ChristianaFigueres #JanineBenyus #NatureInspired #SystemsChange #Sustainability #LearningFromNature

Young, innovative designers around the world spent months asking one question: what would nature do? Now it's time to find out what they came up with. The 2026 Youth Design Challenge Virtual Award Ceremonies are open to the full biomimicry community. Student teams tackled real-world challenges tied to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, designing nature-inspired solutions with guidance from mentors and a biomimicry curriculum. Two sessions are available across time zones: 🌍 BYDC 2026 Awards (Europe + US East Coast) Wednesday, May 27 | 5:00–6:00am PT https://lnkd.in/g3MFDvXM 🌏 BYDC 2026 Awards (Asia + US West Coast) Thursday, May 28 | 5:00–6:00pm PT https://lnkd.in/gCWKmPzJ Hosted by POCACITO Network in partnership with The Biomimicry Institute. Come celebrate the next generation of nature-inspired thinkers. #Biomimicry #YouthDesignChallenge #BiomimicryInstitute #NatureInspired #Sustainability

The Hive is gathering Wednesday, May 20th and there's still a seat for you. 🐝 Asha Singhal (The Biomimicry Institute) and Andrew Keys (Circle Economy) are sitting down to talk about what a regenerative fashion economy actually looks like in practice: the materials science, the systems shifts, the real-world experiments already underway. Hosted by Hive Manager Ayoade Balogun | May 20 | AskNature Hive Live First time joining the Hive? Your first month of exploration is on us. https://lnkd.in/gh_uadJU #NatureOfFashion #CircularEconomy #Biomimicry #AskNature

What if the biggest gap in sustainability strategy isn't technical knowledge—it's perceptual? Researchers studying coastal communities found that urban residents consistently left out feedback loops when describing how ecosystems work. The interdependencies. The web of relationships. Scientists named it "Urbanized Knowledge Syndrome": the longer people live disconnected from living systems, the more their mental models of those systems flatten out. This has real organizational consequences. A study of CEOs found that leaders with stronger personal connections to nature ran companies with significantly greater carbon reduction and more meaningful environmental action. Not their policy positions. Not their credentials. Their relationship with nature. The implication is clear: we can't design regenerative systems we don't have the capacity to perceive. And that capacity isn't restored by a green wall in the lobby. It's restored by direct, repeated, mindful contact with living systems. Our Interim Head of Impact, Erin Rovalo, Ph.D., explores what reconnection actually makes possible, and why it's not separate from the work of regeneration. It's its precursor. 🌿 Read the full post: https://lnkd.in/gWwuFz6u #Biomimicry #NatureConnectedness #Regenerative #Sustainability #SystemsThinking #Leadership

Our Ray of Hope Accelerator portfolio companies are crushing it! Here are a few updates inspiring us lately at the Biomimicry Institute: 🪲 Scentian Bio raised $7M to bring its AI and insect-powered digital nose tech to market. 🌾 Pheronym received $378,000 in National Science Foundation (NSF) Phase IIB supplemental funding to scale manufacturing and advance commercialization of its nematode management technologies. 🧵 Fiberly was shortlisted for the Global Fashion Agenda Trailblazer Programme 2026 and named Top 20 finalist for the Global Change Award 2026. 💊 Seprify partners with BIOGRUND to bring clean-label nutraceutical tablet coatings to market. 🌊 ECOncrete is partnering with the Port Esbjerg (Denmark) to turn dredged sediment into resilient port infrastructure that also creates marine habitat. 🛰️ Coral Vita collaborated with NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Georgia Institute of Technology to explore how satellite data + machine learning could help monitor coral reef health at global scale. ✨ PolyGone Systems Inc showcased its technology at the Forbes Under 30 Summit, where co-founder Yidian Liu represented the team and their mission to tackle microplastic pollution. Grateful to witness this growing ecosystem of founders learning from nature to rethink how we build, restore, and innovate. More to come 🌱

The AskNature Podcast launches May 27th, and Episode 1 asks a question worth sitting with. What is the design intent of our lives? Janine Benyus and Christiana Figueres open the series in conversation about biomimicry, belonging, and what it actually means to live in relationship with the rest of the natural world. "What is the design intent of our actions, of our words, of our thoughts? If we can be much more mindful about that, much more thoughtful and frankly much more loving in how we operate, we would have a different world." — Christiana Figueres "That personal relationship with the rest of the natural world can be cultivated. We are not too far gone from it at all." — Janine Benyus Systems change, it turns out, starts personally. This episode will shift how you think about the relationship between nature, design, and the choices you make every day. Listen May 27th on all major streaming platforms.  https://lnkd.in/gDC-RDBJ #AskNaturePodcast #Biomimicry #ChristianaFigueres #JanineBenyus #NatureInspired #SystemsChange #Sustainability #LearningFromNature