Here are 82 books that Biomimicry fans have personally recommended if you like
Biomimicry.
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I've spent over 15 years as an organizational coach, watching businesses struggle with challenges nature has solved and been fine-tuning over billions of years. This frustration led me to a six-month biomimicry programme where I researched and studied how natural systems actually organize themselves. As a circular economy professional and organization in action of the Doughnut Economics Action Lab, I've seen how businesses attempting sustainability transitions often fail not from lack of technical knowledge but from organisational structures that impede evolution. These books have been my companion on my journey from recognizing the problem to discovering nature's proven solutions, and ultimately writing my own book to share those research insights with others facing similar challenges.
Meadows, a pioneer in this arena, had an extraordinary gift for making complex systems thinking accessible without dumbing it down.
She left us all too soon. I do return to this book, especially her concept of "leverage points": places within systems where small shifts create disproportionate change. Her insight that changing paradigms proves more powerful than adjusting surface parameters directly informed my research on organizational edges.
What I treasure most is how she wrote with both rigour and humility. She acknowledged that systems are messy, that we can't predict everything, that unintended consequences are inevitable; yet she shows us how to work with complexity rather than against it.
When I'm helping organizations navigate transformation, her frameworks help me identify where to intervene for maximum impact. The chapter on system traps and opportunities has probably saved me from dozens of well-intentioned but ultimately counterproductive interventions.
The classic book on systems thinking, with more than half a million copies sold worldwide!
This is a fabulous book. This book opened my mind and reshaped the way I think about investing. Forbes
Perfect for fans of Kate Raworth, Rutger Bregman and Daniel Kahneman!
The co-author of the international best-selling book Limits to Growth, Donella Meadows is widely regarded as a pioneer in the environmental movement and one of the world's foremost systems analysts . Her posthumously published Thinking in Systems, is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem solving on scales ranging from the personal to…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
Learning to live and work sustainably is the greatest challenge of our times. In an age of global climate change, natural resource depletion, plummeting biodiversity, and “failing states” that can no longer meet their people’s basic needs, the only way we can rescue civilization and preserve the natural environment is to live sustainably. Notwithstanding common misperceptions, sustainability is not simply about preservation. Rather, sustainability requires both preservation and change. To be effective in our conservation efforts, we must become ever more creative and adaptive. Practicing sustainability entails managing the scale and speed of change so we can preserve our core values and relationships, both in nature and society.
Daniel Quinn’s award-winning novel illuminates the historical roots of our consumer culture from the perspective of a gorilla who teaches a human the lessons of sustainability.
Before he died, Daniel would meet with my students to discuss sustainability and the lessons of Ishmael. His wisdom comes through clearly in this well-told tale of how Homo sapiens become a species of unsustainable “takers” and what the consequences are of a global consumer culture.
One of the most beloved and bestselling novels of spiritual adventure ever published, Ishmael has earned a passionate following. This special twenty-fifth anniversary edition features a new foreword and afterword by the author.
“A thoughtful, fearlessly low-key novel about the role of our species on the planet . . . laid out for us with an originality and a clarity that few would deny.”—The New York Times Book Review
Teacher Seeks Pupil. Must have an earnest desire to save the world. Apply in person.
It was just a three-line ad in the personals section, but it launched the adventure of…
Learning to live and work sustainably is the greatest challenge of our times. In an age of global climate change, natural resource depletion, plummeting biodiversity, and “failing states” that can no longer meet their people’s basic needs, the only way we can rescue civilization and preserve the natural environment is to live sustainably. Notwithstanding common misperceptions, sustainability is not simply about preservation. Rather, sustainability requires both preservation and change. To be effective in our conservation efforts, we must become ever more creative and adaptive. Practicing sustainability entails managing the scale and speed of change so we can preserve our core values and relationships, both in nature and society.
This book is an excellent primer on sustainable design by leaders in the field. They make the case as clearly as anyone that we have the knowledge and skill to design products that are functional, durable, beautiful, and sustainable. This isn’t just a hope or ideal. McDonough and Braungart have demonstrated their creed of sustainable design in practice.
How can we avoid environmental disaster? Nowadays, in the home, most of us do our bit: we recycle. But what about industry, where the real damage is done? The strategy is the same: 'reduce, resize, reuse' - we try to minimize the damage. But there is a limitation to this well-intentioned approach: it maintains the one-way, 'cradle to grave' manufacturing model of the Industrial Revolution, the very model that creates immense amounts of waste and pollution in the first place.What we need is a major rethink, a new approach which directly combats the problem rather than slowly perpetuating it. An…
A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.
Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother had…
I've spent over 15 years as an organizational coach, watching businesses struggle with challenges nature has solved and been fine-tuning over billions of years. This frustration led me to a six-month biomimicry programme where I researched and studied how natural systems actually organize themselves. As a circular economy professional and organization in action of the Doughnut Economics Action Lab, I've seen how businesses attempting sustainability transitions often fail not from lack of technical knowledge but from organisational structures that impede evolution. These books have been my companion on my journey from recognizing the problem to discovering nature's proven solutions, and ultimately writing my own book to share those research insights with others facing similar challenges.
Raworth articulates something I'd felt but couldn't express: that our current economic models are fundamentally flawed, simultaneously transgressing planetary boundaries whilst leaving billions below social foundations.
Her doughnut framework—depicting the safe and just space between social foundations and ecological ceilings—clarifies the "why of work.”
I love how she challenges conventional economic thinking with such clarity and wit. When she explains why GDP growth can't be our goal, or why economies are embedded within society and nature (not the other way around), it feels both radical and obvious.
As a member organization of the Doughnut Economics Action Lab, I've seen how this framework helps businesses understand their purpose beyond profit.
This book provides the destination; my work explores the organizational navigation, the concrete patterns and structures that enable businesses to actually operate in that safe and just space.
800-CEO-Read "Best Business Book of 2017: Current Events & Public Affairs"
Economics is the mother tongue of public policy. It dominates our decision-making for the future, guides multi-billion-dollar investments, and shapes our responses to climate change, inequality, and other environmental and social challenges that define our times.
Pity then, or more like disaster, that its fundamental ideas are centuries out of date yet are still taught in college courses worldwide and still used to address critical issues in government and business alike.
That's why it is time, says renegade economist Kate Raworth,…
Learning to live and work sustainably is the greatest challenge of our times. In an age of global climate change, natural resource depletion, plummeting biodiversity, and “failing states” that can no longer meet their people’s basic needs, the only way we can rescue civilization and preserve the natural environment is to live sustainably. Notwithstanding common misperceptions, sustainability is not simply about preservation. Rather, sustainability requires both preservation and change. To be effective in our conservation efforts, we must become ever more creative and adaptive. Practicing sustainability entails managing the scale and speed of change so we can preserve our core values and relationships, both in nature and society.
If you know a young child or are young at heart yourself, read, share, and enjoy this Dr. Seuss classic. We live in a world where economic growth is almost universally touted as a panacea.
In his beautiful book, Dr. Seuss teaches us why “biggering” cannot go on forever. He graphically shows the costs it has on the natural world and our lives. It demonstrates what even children know: biggering is not bettering.
The Lorax is the original eco warrior and his message still rings loud today in this fable about the dangers of destroying our forests, told in the trademark rhyme of the irrepressible Dr. Seuss.
"Mister! He said with a sawdusty sneeze, I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees."
The Lorax is a hilarious and timeless story with the trademark humour and silly rhymes of Dr. Seuss, that packs a punch with its ecological message without feeling heavy-handed or worthy. The Lorax is the original eco warrior as he tries to save the Truffula trees from the greedy once-ler's…
I've spent over 15 years as an organizational coach, watching businesses struggle with challenges nature has solved and been fine-tuning over billions of years. This frustration led me to a six-month biomimicry programme where I researched and studied how natural systems actually organize themselves. As a circular economy professional and organization in action of the Doughnut Economics Action Lab, I've seen how businesses attempting sustainability transitions often fail not from lack of technical knowledge but from organisational structures that impede evolution. These books have been my companion on my journey from recognizing the problem to discovering nature's proven solutions, and ultimately writing my own book to share those research insights with others facing similar challenges.
As a circular economy professional from Cambridge university, I pursue to cross that bridge between life sciences and organizational theory.
Capra and Luisi provide exactly that. Their synthesis of systems thinking, complexity theory, and living systems research gives us the conceptual foundation for understanding why organizations function best when mimicking natural characteristics.
I was especially moved by their argument that the mechanistic worldview dominating business for centuries is not just outdated but actively harmful. They show how living systems operate through networks of relationships rather than hierarchies, through emergence rather than control, through continuous adaptation rather than static structures.
Every time I work with an organization struggling with rigid hierarchies or siloed thinking, I draw on frameworks from this book. Their chapter on cognition and consciousness in living systems shifted how I think about organizational learning.
This is dense material, but they write with such clarity that complex concepts become…
Over the past thirty years, a new systemic conception of life has emerged at the forefront of science. New emphasis has been given to complexity, networks, and patterns of organisation, leading to a novel kind of 'systemic' thinking. This volume integrates the ideas, models, and theories underlying the systems view of life into a single coherent framework. Taking a broad sweep through history and across scientific disciplines, the authors examine the appearance of key concepts such as autopoiesis, dissipative structures, social networks, and a systemic understanding of evolution. The implications of the systems view of life for health care, management,…
The Duke's Christmas Redemption
by
Arietta Richmond,
A Duke who has rejected love, a Lady who dreams of a love match, an arranged marriage, a house full of secrets, a most unneighborly neighbor, a plot to destroy reputations, an unexpected love that redeems it all.
Lady Charlotte Wyndham, given in an arranged marriage to a man she…
Learning to live and work sustainably is the greatest challenge of our times. In an age of global climate change, natural resource depletion, plummeting biodiversity, and “failing states” that can no longer meet their people’s basic needs, the only way we can rescue civilization and preserve the natural environment is to live sustainably. Notwithstanding common misperceptions, sustainability is not simply about preservation. Rather, sustainability requires both preservation and change. To be effective in our conservation efforts, we must become ever more creative and adaptive. Practicing sustainability entails managing the scale and speed of change so we can preserve our core values and relationships, both in nature and society.
This book is chock-full of insights and has withstood the tests of time. Leopold was the father of ecological thinking and an early systems thinker. If I were to recommend one book that poetically and practically makes the case for living sustainably and embracing the beauty of nature, this would be it.
Few books have had a greater impact than A Sand County Almanac, which many credit with launching a revolution in land management. Written as a series of sketches based principally upon the flora and fauna in a rural part of Wisconsin, the book, originally published by Oxford in 1949, gathers informal pieces written by Leopold over a forty-year period as he traveled through the woodlands of Wisconsin, Iowa, Arizona, Sonora, Oregon, Manitoba, and elsewhere; a final section addresses the philosophical issues involved in wildlife conservation. Beloved for its description and evocation of the natural world, Leopold's book, which has sold…
I've spent over 15 years as an organizational coach, watching businesses struggle with challenges nature has solved and been fine-tuning over billions of years. This frustration led me to a six-month biomimicry programme where I researched and studied how natural systems actually organize themselves. As a circular economy professional and organization in action of the Doughnut Economics Action Lab, I've seen how businesses attempting sustainability transitions often fail not from lack of technical knowledge but from organisational structures that impede evolution. These books have been my companion on my journey from recognizing the problem to discovering nature's proven solutions, and ultimately writing my own book to share those research insights with others facing similar challenges.
Woolley-Barker does something brilliant: she takes biomimicry beyond individual organisms to how nature organizes collective intelligence.
Her exploration of ant colonies, bee hives, and cellular networks revealed organizational strategies I could immediately apply to business contexts. I was particularly struck by her explanation of how superorganisms achieve coordination without central control, making decisions through distributed intelligence.
What makes this book special is how she connects natural patterns to contemporary business challenges. When she describes how ant colonies manage supply chains more efficiently than Amazon, or how immune systems defend against threats whilst avoiding self-destruction, I see direct parallels to organizational problems my clients face.
Her writing balances scientific depth with accessibility. I could share examples with CEOs who'd never heard of biomimicry and watch their eyes light up with recognition.
This book convinced me even more that ecosystem-level biomimicry isn't just interesting theory but practical organizational strategy.
An entertaining and accessible read with profound implications for the future, Teeming takes us on a journey through nature's most ancient and successful R&D labs, and gives practical prescriptions for redesigning organizations to flourish far into the future. Evolutionary biologist Woolley-Barker weaves poetic vision and deep scientific expertise to illustrate how flat, agile, and adaptive societies like ants, termites, and underground fungal networks self-organize for resilience and value.
The most successful species are those that adapt to change, and the same is true in business. But there are limits to vertical growth, and our hierarchical structures can only grow so…
K. Lee Lerner is an author, editor, and producer of science and factual media, including four editions of the Gale Encyclopedia of Science and the Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security. His expansive writing on science, climate change, disasters, disease, and global issues has earned multiple book and media awards, including books named Outstanding Academic Titles. An aviator, sailor, and member of the National Press Club in Washington, his two global circumnavigations and portfolio of work in challenging and dangerous environments reveal a visceral drive to explore and investigate. With a public intellectual's broad palate and a scientist's regard for evidence-based analysis, Lerner dissects and accessibly explains complex issues.
Sally Smith Hughes' highly readable tale of the genesis of Genentech provides a no-holds-barred look into the gritty details of how biotech firms are born. Hughes reveals how scientists, lawyers, and venture capitalists work together and collide in a crucible of competing disciplines and desires to produce transformative advances. For those interesting in biotech entrepreneurship or simply investing in biotech, this book offers key foundational insights into the industry.
In the fall of 1980, Genentech, Inc., a little-known California genetic engineering company, became the overnight darling of Wall Street, raising over $38 million in its initial public stock offering. Lacking marketed products or substantial profit, the firm nonetheless saw its share price escalate from $35 to $89 in the first few minutes of trading, at that point the largest gain in stock market history. Coming at a time of economic recession and declining technological competitiveness in the United States, the event provoked banner headlines and ignited a period of speculative frenzy over biotechnology as a revolutionary means for creating…
This book follows the journey of a writer in search of wisdom as he narrates encounters with 12 distinguished American men over 80, including Paul Volcker, the former head of the Federal Reserve, and Denton Cooley, the world’s most famous heart surgeon.
In these and other intimate conversations, the book…
As a child, I spent all my summers in a rural environment outside the metropolitan area. This "immersion" in nature shaped my interests and hobbies, centering them on different aspects of watching and understanding life. Expectedly therefore, my formal education also focused on biology, biochemistry, and cell biology. Being a scientist is not just a profession; it is a calling, a profession, and a hobby. Biology books—strictly dry and professional and more engaging and emotional—represent an inherent aspect of a scientist's life and place his/her research in a wide context of human society. This list includes several such books which I would like to share with you.
This book expands my initial interest in GMO plants to other, very diverse fields of biotechnology. I find it useful and revealing for a wide spectrum of readers, from professionals to students to general readers, seeking to understand the general principles and approaches that underlie biotechnological developments that affect our lives, from plant and animal GMOs to vaccines.
Biotechnology for Beginners, Third Edition presents the latest developments in the evolving field of biotechnology which has grown to such an extent over the past few years that increasing numbers of professional's work in areas that are directly impacted by the science. This book offers an exciting and colorful overview of biotechnology for professionals and students in a wide array of the life sciences, including genetics, immunology, biochemistry, agronomy and animal science. This book will also appeals to lay readers who do not have a scientific background but are interested in an entertaining and informative introduction to the key aspects…
