· 8 min read
Biomimetics - an interdisciplinary rising space in the world of sustainability - needed a governance framework, and the Exponential Governance Mindset (EGM) can help.
Here’s the point: as with other exponential technologies like GenAI, frontier computing and advanced robotics, by adopting the five elements of the Exponential Governance Mindset (see graphic below), the field and practice of biomimetics would benefit tremendously. By its very nature multifaceted and multi-technological, biomimetics would benefit from deploying EGM to ensure a more responsible, ethical, sustainable, resilient and strategic future for both stakeholders and planet in the discovery and deployment of nature-based solutions at scale.
What is biomimetics? definitions and examples
Before explaining the 5 elements of EGM and how they might apply to biomimetics, let’s turn to a couple of definitions. Here is the description of “biomimetics” from Biomimetics International (an industry and academic association on whose Advisory Board I serve):
“a deep conviction that nature's time-tested strategies hold the key to transformative solutions in a world facing urgent sustainability challenges. Solutions to global problems within industries, across sectors, and amongst networks. In nature, organisms thrive by working collectively, a principle evident from the intricate dance of symbiosis found in ecosystems like slime molds, schools of fish, flocks of birds, and entire forests, such as the Aspens. This collective intelligence isn’t just limited to the wild—it also extends to humans.”
ChatGPT provides a more standardized definition:
“Biomimetics is an interdisciplinary field that studies biological structures, functions or processes (from organisms or ecosystems), abstracts the underlying principles, and transfers or adapts them into human-designed technologies, materials or systems. The goal is to exploit nature’s 3.8 + billion-year evolutionary solutions to achieve new performance, efficiency, sustainability or functionality in engineering, design, materials science, robotics and other human domains.”
Below is a table showing several examples of nature-inspired biomimetic solutions that have already been deployed – and there are many, many more – with some notes on how their relationship to sustainability:
Examples of biomimetic products and services and their relative sustainability |
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|
Example |
What makes it biomimetic |
Sustainability |
|
Namibian Fog-Harvesting Beetle (water collection) |
The Namib Desert beetle collects water from fog using hydrophilic bumps and hydrophobic valleys on its back. MIT and other researchers developed fog-harvesting nets and building materials based on this principle, now deployed in water-scarce regions like Chile and Morocco to collect drinking water. |
SUPERIOR IMPACT The impact is very benign - it passively collects water from air using no energy, no chemicals, and no extraction from existing water sources. It reduces pressure on groundwater and doesn't compete with other ecosystems. The nets are simple structures that don't harm wildlife when properly designed. |
|
Lotus Effect (Self-cleaning surfaces) |
The lotus leaf's ability to stay clean inspired hydrophobic coatings now used in exterior paints, building materials, fabrics, and glass. Companies like Sto Corp produce Lotusan paint that repels water and dirt, keeping buildings cleaner and reducing maintenance costs. |
SUPERIOR IMPACT Self-cleaning surfaces significantly reduce water consumption and eliminate or greatly reduce the need for chemical cleaners. Buildings stay cleaner longer without power-washing or harsh detergents entering waterways. |
|
Whale Fin Tubercles (wind turbines & fans) |
The bumps on humpback whale flippers inspired more efficient turbine blade designs that reduce drag and improve performance. Companies like WhalePower have commercialized this technology for industrial fans and wind turbines. |
MODERATE IMPACT While renewable energy is positive, wind turbines do have some wildlife impacts (particularly birds and bats). However, the efficiency gains can mean fewer turbines needed for the same output, which can be a net positive. |
|
Shark-Inspired Riblets (speedo fastskin & aircraft) |
Sharkskin's microscopic dermal denticles reduce drag in water. Speedo developed swimsuits using this principle for Olympic swimmers, and the aviation industry has applied similar riblet patterns to aircraft surfaces to reduce fuel consumption by 5-8%. |
MIXED IMPACT While reducing fuel consumption in aviation is positive, the materials and manufacturing processes for these surface treatments can involve chemicals and energy-intensive production. The net benefit depends on the lifecycle analysis. |
Source: Research via ChatGPT and Claude inquiries dated October 27, 2025.
Applying the Exponential Governance Mindset to biomimetics
EGM is a governance, ethics, impact, resilience and foresight framework fully explained in my forthcoming book, Governing Pandora: Leading in the Age of Generative AI and Exponential Technology. It is laser focused on preparing leaders, decision-makers, policymakers and doers to address and successfully tackle the constantly evolving, multifaceted change – especially technological – that we are living through strategically, responsibly and sustainably. Let’s review each of its elements and how it intertwines with deploying biomimetics.
EGM Element #1 - “Leadership: Turbocharging 360 tech governance” focuses on building 360 technology governance within organizations by creating fully integrated top-down, bottom-up, and middle-out technology governance and encouraging a lifecycle approach to the creation, deployment and sunsetting of tech.
• What this means for the field of biomimetics is that to the extent nature inspires and/or is otherwise integrated into new products and services that this be done under the aegis of integrated 360 governance where the board, the executive management and the front line workers work together on the same page throughout the lifecycle of the nature-based technology, respecting its lessons, understanding its upsides and downsides.
Consider the wind turbine example above and how its tech needs to be integrated into overall organizational tech governance.
EGM Element #2 - “Ethos: Embedding responsible tech culture” underscores the profound need to embed tech ethics, responsibility, and accountability into organizational culture.
• What this means for the field of biomimetics is that as you scale nature’s example, you need to build in the necessary and desirable ethical and operational guardrails to scale responsibly. Are you embedding the necessary guardrails into the research, development and deployment of the nature-based solutions providing all workers with the necessary and desirable safety valves to speak up without fear of retaliation if something is not right or goes wrong? Are you being true to nature’s example or are you cutting corners?
Consider the ethics of using chemicals, e.g., in the Lotus plant example above, and whether the two issues are properly vetted from an ethics perspective.
EGM Element #3 - “Impact: Integrating stakeholders into the tech loop” the focus here is on who your most important stakeholders are and how leaders need to incorporate their needs, interests, and expectations into the tech loop.
• What this means for the field of biomimetics is asking numerous questions about who the key stakeholders are in the deployment of your nature-based solution – do you understand who or what they are? Do you understand these stakeholders’ expectations of you and your product or solution? Are you living up to these expectations or will you suffer reputational risk?
Consider the possible negative impacts of the turbines on wildlife in one example in the Table above or the positive ones in the fog-harvesting example.
EGM Element #4 - “Resilience: Deploying polyrisk and polycrisis preparedness.” This element is all about organizations truly understanding their full risk and crisis context which in today’s world is one of polyrisk and polycrisis and therefore having robust enterprise risk management (ERM), crisis management and business continuity practices.
• What this means for the field of biomimetics is the need for leadership to fully understand the risks and polyrisks of developing, deploying and sunsetting nature-based solutions. Does your organization have the right people asking the right questions about the risk, business continuity and crisis scenarios that could ensue from the development, deployment and sunsetting of your nature-based solution?
Consider the risks and potential crises possible involving chemicals used in the aviation business in the example mentioned in the Table above.
EGM Element #5 - “Foresight: Unleashing a future-forward tech strategy” outlines key components for an effective tech strategy that incorporates broad/global situational awareness, systems thinking, tech risk intelligence, tech-opportunity readiness, and scenario planning.
• What this means for the field of biomimetics is having the right situational awareness of the global context in which your nature-based solution lives (whether virtual or physical), having a full understanding of risks and opportunities, competitive context, and running a variety of scenarios for your nature-based solution to plan accordingly for both the upsides and downsides and overall organizational and stakeholder resilience.
Consider the energy consumption in the deployment of the shark-inspired riblets in aircraft in the example above.
Conclusion
Why apply the Exponential Governance Mindset to the rising multidisciplinary field of biomimetics? Because it helps to develop the responsible, ethical, and sustainable development of this emerging field to ensure positive outcomes for stakeholders and avoid negative consequences. Scaling solutions from nature by definition requires good governance, risk, and ethical practices - the more we can prepare to do so the fewer the risks to the planet and its inhabitants and the greater the rewards to all.
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