The answers to our questions are everywhere; we just need to change the lens with which we see the world.

For a long time we have thought we were better than the living world, and now some of us tend to think we are worse, that everything we touch turns to soot. But neither perspective is healthy. We have to remember how it feels to have equal standing in the world, to be "between the mountain and the ant . . . part and parcel of creations," as the Iroquois traditionalist Oren Lyons says.

Life solves its problems with well-adapted designs, life-friendly chemistry and smart material and energy use.

Water is at the center of every chemical reaction, and therefore should be the earths most precious gift.

Everyone is trying to jump on the biomimic bandwagon. But a cork floor is not biomimicry. Neither is using bacteria to clean water.

Listening to nature's operating instructions.

For businesses, biomimicry is about bringing a new discipline - biology - to the design table. It's not to write an environmental impact statement, as most biologists in business do right now.