6 LESSONS FROM NATURE

PRINCIPALS

1. SOLAR INCOME

• Life cannot exist without solar income (light and energy).

• Plants feed on sun, animals feed on plants, homosapiens feed on plants and animals,

(homosolaris feed on sun) • Sun energy is also the creator of forms and

shapes (we will come back to this later on)!

SOLAR INCOME

Las Gaviotas – the Colombian mega project for the world

We can use this solar income to: • generate hot water for our houses;

• design water purification systems, large hospital water heating systems , semi-industrial solar

cookers and even sterilization equipment.

2. MULTIPLE BENEFITS

Healthy coral reefs provide:• Habitat - home to over 1 million diverse

aquatic species.• Income - billions of dollars and millions

of jobs around the world.• Food - for people living near coral reefs.

MULTIPLE BENEFITS

• Protection - a natural barrier protecting coastal cities, communities and beaches. • Medicine - treatments for many of the

world's illnesses and diseases. • We can use the functioning of this

network of species in the management of ecosystems.

3. DIVERSITY GIVES STRENGHT

• From holistic point of view the natural systems live in diversity.

• Diversity stabilizes an ecosystem and its processes (but does so at the cost of the individual species that live in these communities).

• More diverse plant communities have consistently higher productivity

DIVERSITY GIVES STRENGHT

We can use it for maintaining diversity: • in agriculture and ecosystems (forest

examples); • of people and skills in an organization; • of transportation types and routes; • of industries filling similar market niches.

4. WASTE=FOOD

• Where do we find waste in nature?• At an ecosystem level organisms can be seen

as metabolists constantly gathering and processing materials before releasing them back to the environment.

• What can we use the waste from coffee production for?

5. FEEDBACK SELF-REGULATION

• Feedbacks in nature• Positive / negative feedback • The nature’s way to communicate information• Elephants culling for or against? • We can use it … (turning of crops not

enough)?

6. OPTIMIZES WITHIN LIMITS

• All things in Nature were optimized during many years of evolution (structure and shape).

• Galileo - strength does not increase in proportion to size.

OPTIMIZES WITHIN LIMITS

• Beaks, oysters, sunflowers ...• We can use it to: –design HVAC systems for specific

situations/environments/climates; – in preventing buildup of calcium deposits; –build solar power stations …

How many of the principals do you find here?