Working with our natural environment to create harmonious solutions.
Biomimicry + Engineering With Nature
I spent my childhood and early youth on the Gulf Coast of South Texas, where I spent hours and hours on fishing adventures with my family and friends in the tidal flats of the Laguna Madre.
I was surrounded and immersed in incredible coastal landscapes and biodiversity — marine creatures, sea grasses, birds and shoreline habitats. The beauty and bounty made a deep and lasting impression on me.
Fast forward several decades — my view of the natural world has evolved to include not only appreciation of nature but also how much there is to learn from it to improve how we build. It’s becoming increasingly clear that the design and engineering solutions we introduce must no longer compromise and control nature but rather work in harmony with it; this is fundamentally what Biomimicry and Engineering With Nature (EWN) are about.
It’s learning deeply about the natural systems we depend on so we can then intentionally and skillfully align our design and engineering processes with our natural environment to deliver solutions that are environmentally, economically and socially regenerative.
Biomimicry is learning from and then emulating nature's forms, processes and ecosystems to create more sustainable designs.
Engineering With Nature is the intentional alignment of engineering processes with our natural environment to deliver solutions that are environmentally, economically and socially regenerative.
Biomimicry at work for Ford
Working with Biomimicry 3.8, we helped Ford Motor Company develop its corporate real estate sustainability strategy, which aims to achieve positive impacts for employee health and wellbeing, their communities and the environment by aligning facility, site and campus performance levels with those of local, natural systems.
Using Biomimicry 3.8’s Positive Performance methodology, the team analyzed and measured the performance of ecosystem services (that is, contributions to human wellbeing) provided by local reference habitats to set targets for the specific performance goals of the project. Fundamental to this approach is biomimicry, which is the emulation of nature’s time-tested design strategies to create more beneficial, resilient and regenerative human designs. Buildings and landscapes designed through biomimicry to emulate healthy forests can transform from standard buildings to those that can provide beneficial services, such as clean air, clean water, food and recreation to local neighborhoods.
Rebuilding after Hurricane Michael
A multi-disciplinary team consisting of KBR, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and Jacobs explored how nature-based solutions could help rebuild and protect Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida after Hurricane Michael destroyed the military installation.
The team investigated several pilots to identify nature-based solutions for coastal restoration and resiliency that also would enhance the natural environment. These natural defenses, such as restoring tidal flats, beaches, dunes and oyster reefs, are designed to work with traditional gray infrastructure to reduce storm impact, provide natural barriers to waves and high water levels and reduce flooding. There’s an added benefit too — some offer increased habitat for threatened and endangered species, such as beach mice and sea turtles.
Identifying nature-based solutions for coastal restoration and resiliency that also enhance the natural environment.
Tyndall Air Force Base and beyond
After examining nature-based solutions at Tyndall Air Force Base, Jacobs partnered with the EWN initiative within USACE to write Engineering With Nature: Supporting Mission Resilience and Infrastructure Value at Department of Defense Installations.
The publication illustrates how EWN solutions can support U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) mission resilience and infrastructure value. If DoD, with more than 25 million acres of land at sites, facilities and installations around the world, can understand the benefits and value that EWN brings, then there’s hope for more companies, agencies, communities and other stakeholders to see that value too. ■
"Look deep, deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better."
– Albert Einstein