Episode description

Nature has been solving problems with functions and mechanics and chemistry for at least 3.8 billion years. That’s a great deal of research and testing and trial and error in the evolutionary process to realize something as elegant as a bird in flight or a lobster that crawls the sea floor in near-total darkness. Most technologists appreciate the intricacies and subtle power of the evolutionary process, and for decades they have been looking to nature for design inspiration.

For this episode of the Future Perfect Tech podcast, we sat down with Shana Longo of Legrand and innovation consultant Nick Heier to talk about the ways nature can inspire better, more sustainable technology products, buildings and organizations.

Shana and Nick walk us through many examples of biomimicry and why it matters—not just to product and tech design, but to innovation and our relationship with the natural world.

Shana Longo has ten years of corporate sustainability and government affairs experience. She’s conducted extensive research on the evolution of the High Performance Building market and the variety of performance mechanisms available to building owners (LEED, WELL, LBC). She’s presented at Congressional briefings, the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, and the International Sustainable Cities Congress in Costa Rica. Currently, Shana is the XaaS Technology Manager for Legrand’s Building Control System Division charged with developing a data-driven services product offering. For the past 3 years, she has led Legrand’s High Performance Building Committee, managing a corporate-wide initiative to understand how the electrical industry plays a role in sustainable and well-being building design. Shana attended American University in Washington, DC, and graduated with a Dual Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Environmental Studies, with a concentration in Policy. She is currently pursuing her Master of Science in Biomimicry at Arizona State University.

Nick Heier works with business leaders across industries to encourage development strategies around innovation. Drawing from twenty years experience building and leading inclusive, high-performance teams in the joint, interagency, and intergovernmental spaces of the US Defense Enterprise, Nick enables organizations to transform ideas to impact against their most complex challenges. Nick’s focus areas include biomimicry and technology adoption rates. Prior to this, Nick spent twenty years in the U.S. Marine Corps. He is currently pursuing his Master of Science in Biomimicry at Arizona State University.