Dear all, I would appreciate your wise advice.
I'm a 23 year old PhD student, I just joined the University of Liverpool to do Research in
Design for Sustainability.
I really want to do something meaningful with my life, my time and energy, that's why I
ended up doing research in Design for Sustainability.
In my dreams I would like to go even a step further to design and manufacture products
that heal the environment, I like calling this "Grow-ability" (Growing more of the life
support systems) mimicking the tree that when it grows it is good, it sequesters carbon,
it creates oxygen, provides habitat to hundreds of species, and so on and so forth, but
HOW DO I GET TO THE SPECIFICS? HOW COULD BIOMIMETICS HELP ACHIEVE GROW-
ABILITY?
From my first survey of the literature I sense that most of the efforts in Biomimetics are
channeled to the design of functionality in products and that there is less effort put into
biomimetics applied to eco-design. Is this picture true?
My Idea:
I've been thinking that we may be able to design more sustainable products if we can use
organic "waste" (like fallen leafs, mowed grass from city parks or fodder from farming
operations) and transform their fibers into carpets for example, or may be clothing. Is
this technically possible to do while achieving the level of functionality of conventional
products? Could we design a sustainable manufacturing process that mimics nature to
create such type of products?
Thank you very much!
Samuel
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