Nature, what a beautiful thing, not only is it gorgeous to look at but it is a life system that consists of so many different wonderful organisms that provide for themselves. Doesn’t it just make sense for us to study it and learn how we can be more like it, than to be destructive to these wonderful organisms? I think so and so do some of the most cutting edge creative designers that have looked into/made this biomimicry term. Biomimicry that we discussed is learning from natural forms, process, and ecosystems to create more sustainable designs. By doing this, we can solve so many problems by looking to nature, because nature has already overcome and solved its own problems, to continue to exist. One of the examples that we discussed in class that really interested me was the lotus leaf effect. I love how we really did she biomimicry play out, by watching and learning from this plant, not to just come up with a cool new outfit, but a fabric that reduces fluorine—Carbons chemicals. I hope to see more companies using the lotus leaf effect in their fabrics.
In reading about Industrial Ecology, I thought it was so interesting to discover how we tend to see everything separate from one product to another, but really what one company does, will affect anything and everything around them. Likewise, what one consumer does with a product affects another consumer, even if they never met. Nothing truly disappears and therefore we have so much waste in our industry of design and fast fashion. Industrial Ecology wants to satisfy customer need while also satisfying possible environmental needs. Though, this could be costly in making deliberate and rational differentiates in the industry, it would be much more desirable than being controlled by the outcome of depletion and famine. I think Industrial Ecology is an interesting concept were we looked to our environment and the nature to see that everything is inner connected and we must start learning more ways to be sustainable not only in the industry –world but in our own day-to-day lives.
This leads me to discuses our Carbon-Foot prints. A Carbon-Foot print is the amount of greenhouse emissions a person is placing in the environment that is/maybe causing climate change. As I took the carbon-foot print test, I learned that mine is, 13 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, which is below the U.S. national average of 27 tons of CO2, but is higher than the worlds average which is 5.5 tons. Through taking this test, I see ways and different things that I should do in order to reduce my greenhouse emissions. I want to reuse more items, and recycle more as well as buy more organic products. I think it is good to see the effect that we personally are doing to harm the environment, and how we can become more sustainable to help the earth and the future generations to come.