CONFERENCE SPEAKERS
£1K TO £2.5K
AFTER DINNER SPEAKERS
"Michael inspires audiences to look at the debate with imagination rather than doom-mongering."
Sir Nicholas Grimshaw
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TOPICS
Manufacturing & Eng., Energy & Sustainability
SPEECH TITLES
Bio-mimicry
BIOGRAPHY
Michael Pawlyn was one of the lead architects behind the Eden Project in Cornwall. Treating nature as a blueprint, he believes there are huge gains to be made by learning from how the natural world works - especially in the effort to slow down the effects of climate change.
For every problem we face, from generating energy to manufacturing materials, there are examples from nature to give us inspiration. Importantly, these solutions are often more profitable than traditional approaches, as well as radically reducing the impact on the environment.
Michael's work includes a carbon neutral method for regenerating waste, and the revolutionary Sarah Forest Project which mimics the Namibian fog-basking beetle's ability to create its own fresh water. The scheme has the potential to reverse the process of desertification in the Sahara and other desert regions as well as generating large amounts of renewable solar energy.
Michael Pawlyn represented Grimshaw as a Founder Member of the UK Green Building Council and is a member of The Edge, the environmental think tank. He has also founded his own architectural practice specialising in sustainable and biomimicry projects.
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BIOMIMICRY
by Michael Pawlyn
We can be sure of one thing: the revolution that we are now entering - the sustainability revolution - will be like no other. For the first time, the future will not be an improved version of the past. It is possible that the peaking of oil and many other resources will drive the most dramatic period of innovation ever witnessed.
As with any period of dramatic change, the early adopters of new ideas and new technologies are likely to be those that achieve the greatest success.
There are huge environmental and economic benefits to be gained from studying the design solutions that nature has developed with the benefit of a 3.6 billion year R&D period.
Our Sahara Forest Project was inspired by the Namibian Fog-Basking Beetle, which has evolved to create its own fresh water in a desert. The result is a proposal that could create fresh water in some of the most water-stressed parts of the planet while re-vegetating large areas of desert and creating surplus clean energy.