In this age of technology most people know by now that we get a lot of our medicines and fabrics from things we find in nature but did you know that a lot, if not all the items in your home were also inspired by something in nature?  This is called biomimicry.

Biomimicry is when a man made object imitates or is inspired by nature.  You may be unfamiliar with the term but this is not a new concept, and it is growing in popularity. For instance have you ever been drawn to an item in a store but you have no idea why you like it so much?  Do you find yourself always looking at a particular building as you drive by on your way to work?  Chances are these things catch your attention because of some biomimicry in the design.

We are attracted to designs that imitate nature because they are subconsciously familiar.  Familiarity breeds friendly, happy, or content feelings.  Designs that utilize this subconscious response in consumers tend to do very well in sales.  It’s also why we tend to see a face in most designs.  For instance a light socket does seem to look like two eyes and a mouth.

Jewelry designers apply biomimicry more than any other industry.  The next time you’re in a jewelry store or at a jewelry website you’ll probably find something that looks like an insect, an animal, or a plant.  Even the clasp most jewelry uses to fasten was inspired by the lobster claw.

Designs that apply inspiration from nature tend to be more functional too.  For example the bullet train in Japan was inspired by the beak of the kingfisher.  This shape allows the train to move much faster with less air resistance.  This design also eliminated the loud boom the old trains would create each time they emerged from the tunnels.  Cars of all shapes, sizes, and functions have been using nature as a guide for years. Recently, Mercedes-Benz, applied the aerodynamic shape of the boxfish to their bionic car and as a result this vehicle has a 65% lower drag coefficient than other vehicles in its class.

According to Bob Little, the president of solidThinking-

The basic fundamental point is that nature has 3.8 billion years of evolution for us to pull inspiration from. Survival of the fittest is still alive today so we can see which concepts in nature flourished and which died out.  Nature has done most of the work for us already we just have to be smart and clever enough to make it work for us.  So the next time you find your eye drawn to something, take a second to think about why and maybe you’ll find that society isn’t as separate from nature as you once thought.

Opportunity Green’s 2009 conference on sustainable business kicks off this weekend. Neu Black is proud to support Karen and Mike in this most noble of causes. We all strive to live with less negative impact. Opportunity Green gives us insight into how we might do business in this way. This years line up of speakers includes Julie Gilhart of Barney’s New York and Alexis Madrigal of Wired.com just to name of few. Take this last Opportunity to grab your tickets here.

The BMW Lovos (Lifestyle of Voluntary Simplicity) concept is an interesting solution to how to integrate solar technology into a car body. The scale shaped cell panels can lift and turn to adjust themselves to the angle of the sun and absorb the most reflective light. The “scales” can also affect handling by lying flat for maximum aerodynamic performance or lifting to create airfoil braking and stabilization.
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This seems like a really interesting idea for those who prefer a bit more nature in their back yard. Following many of the eco-friendly trends in landscape design, this new style of chemical free pool is starting to catch on. While we certainly don’t mind the lack of irritated eyes, green hair, dry skin, and weird chemical smell inherent in chlorine pools, we are sold by the look of a pool lined with cobble stones and a cool inviting jade color. The big question now is, where’s the jacuzzi version of this?

We were a little skeptical of how this works, but we found a nice diagram you can see after the jump.

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You may have remembered last year when we wrote about Tata motors showing the $2,500 Nano hailed as the new car of the people. Tata has just announced that the production version of the Nano will be available for purchase in India April 9, 2009 and has been squeezed even further down to a base price of $2,000.

What do we like about the Nano? We think that the most impressive feature (aside from the rock bottom price) is that it gets a reported 50 mpg. While this is not a hybrid engine, if it consumes less gas and emits less pollution we’re all for it. On top of that, the Nano is barely 10 feet long, which has distinct advantages when trying to park in a crowded urban area like Los Angeles.
The downside of course is, the Nano is a funny looking little car with tiny rollerskate like wheels. The top speed on the Nano is 65 mph, which means your going to get honked at even in the slow lane. There’s the obvious safety concerns that a small car has over getting hit by a large truck, but millions of Prius drivers seem safe enough so far.

The Tata Nano will be released in it’s home country of India first and is expected to do very well by Indian standards. We respect the concept as your faithful Editor-In-Chief’s first car was a ’73 VW Beetle which served millions of people around the world well for many decades. We think in fact, that the destruction of the the US auto industry has had a lot to do with building cars that are often half the price of the owners pretax income, became increasing difficult for the average owner to fix without expensive computer based tools, and broke down more and more frequently. It’s one thing if your car is cheap and when it breaks down you can fix it yourself (which we often did with the VW with $50 and some duct tape). It’s another when it’s a $20-$40K item that breaks down and you have to shell out another $500-$1000 every time it breaks down, which happens every 4-6 months.

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Tesla officially unveiled it’s new Model S electric luxury sedan yesterday and it has all the makings of a winner. This new model scheduled to be released in 2011 is set to compete against hybrid and EV offerings from Mercedes Benz and BMW with an MSRP of $49,900 after a $7,500 tax credit. The Model S is slated to be available with 160, 220, and 300 mile battery packs, but still no word on how pricing varies between options.

Provided this edition is actually released as scheduled and is widely available (a problem for Tesla’s ground breaking Roadster) the model S is certainly competitive. The Model S gets high marks for looks and seeing as it’s coming down the line from the Roadster we would expect it to handle well.
Where we think the Model S may shine most brightly is the “Environmentalist Status Symbol” area. While driving a Prius announces to your friends “I’m putting my money where my mouth is when it comes to saving the planet”, it looks like you’re doing it in your mom’s car. If the Prius didn’t have a hybrid engine, it would just be a slightly more sophisticated Yaris.

Honda has experienced the flip side of this problem with the Accord hybrid, because it looks just like a regular Accord. With out the status symbol value it’s hard to justify the extra cost (which currently out weighs the gas savings) unless you just like the personal satisfaction of saving the planet anonymously.

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In would could be a step forward on a road to a greener future Better Place is looking to get electric cars out on the road sooner rather than later, and according to NY Times columnist David Pogue, it’s a plan that might be just crazy enough to work.
If you want the low down, Better Place want to sell you a car, and lease you a battery that you can charge up at home or trade out at charging station. The idea is you own your car, but but your pay for the miles like you’d buy minutes on a cell phone plan. According to Better Place CEO Shai Agassi in fact, the company will subsidize the price of the car if you buy enough miles in the same way that cell phone companies subsidize handsets.
So far the company has signed on it’s home country of Isreal, as well as Denmark, Ontario CA, and Hawaii, with San Francisco CA and a few other Bay Area counties on the way. The company has it’s share of critics as you can read on Tree Hugger and the Huffington Post. We think that while this may not be the answer it is an answer to the myriad of problems with both how we use energy, and how we move from one place to another.
As we have mentioned before, cars haven’t changed to tremedously since Henry Ford released the Model T, and we applaud anyone doing anything to re-think how a works or what a car is. As for the would we buy one question goes, we think there are three big issues to address in no particular order.

1. Is the price of the car and the miles more, less, or roughly equivalent compared to a gas powered model?

2. What happens if I forget to charge it and I run out of power? Will AAA come bring me a battery to swap?

3. What’s the quality of the car like? Is it reliable? Is it fun to drive? Aside from the feel good factor of saving the planet, will I love this car?

Drawing inspiration from the materials and textures of handmade pieces our great grandparents might have owned, Environment is bringing home furnishing back to it’s roots. Through decades of increased manufacturing productivity and diminishing profits, the quality of materials used in almost all of today’s furniture design is poor at best. Even pieces from the higher end retailers are assembled particleboard puzzles, shipped flat for efficiency. Environment is a refreshing return to quality construction with rustic natural textures and simple contemporary design.

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The ‘On Route’ transportation system aims to transform the way people and cargo move through todays urban cities. By transporting freight and passengers within one zero emission vehicle, the city of London could directly address both of it’s greatest air quality issues. The zero emission propulsion system is designed to accommodate either a battery fuel-cell system or a small bio-gas generator to maintain fully charged batteries. In wheel electric motors allow the bus to maneuver in and out of bus stops with ease. Created as an entry into the New Bus for London contest held in Summer of ’08, concept originator Hugh Frost hopes to have the design transcend it’s original purpose and address the larger issues faced by modern transportation systems. This is an innovative step in the right direction, but only time will tell if this system will be fully realized as a solution to the metropolitan emission reduction.

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Envirosax reusable shopping bags

As many of us are now searching for a few finishing touches to our holiday shopping, I thought I’d add a few suggestions from our local reserve. Check back for coverage of our favorite local boutiques and the places we’ll be shopping this holiday.

Since it opened in mid 2006, Regeneration has been a staple in Eagle Rock (Los Angeles). This boutique was focusing on eco-friendly goods at a time when many contested the validity of global warming. “What really makes the store work is that most people find things that they really want, and the eco-friendly aspect is a bonus. There’s also so many items that have a story behind them. Customers have said it’s like browsing in a museum. I really like that aspect, and look for interesting things, particularly items that aren’t mass produced,” says Owner Kelly Witmer.

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