NATURE
Beth Rattner
Executive Director,
Biomimicry Institute
Using Nature as our Guide
Remarkable examples from nature would allow us to innovate and retrain a new generation in how we design and engineer.
Beth Rattner has been working for regenerative design since 2000 and has been the executive director of the Biomimicry Institute since 2012. The Institute brings the practice of bioinspired design to hundreds of thousands of people a year through its education and entrepreneurship programs. Beth speaks publicly on how biomimetic design of human products and systems can restore our economy and environment, which in turn spur social equity. Her long-standing interest in permaculture and herbalism served as a foundation for this deep attention to the natural world.
Prior to this position, Beth worked with William McDonough and Michael Braungart on The Upcycle, the sequel to Cradle to Cradle, before she helped co-found the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute and became its executive director.
An attorney by training, Beth was also a managing director for one of the first sustainability business consultant firms, Blu Skye, and business manager for Hewlett Packard’s Emerging Market Solutions (EMS) group. This HP internal “start-up” championed a new lens on providing technology solutions to those who earn less than $2 a day. The team launched HP’s first multi-user, daisy-chained computer for poorly funded schools and a solar-powered printer, providing microfinance opportunities for women who could bring photographs to remote villages for the very first time.
Watch a short, engaging video about ECOncrete’s inspiration (mentioned in her talk) from nature and solution for marine ecosystems: https://youtu.be/C3dufwReEKs
