If you take a closer look at the history of mankind, you get the impression that there are no other species that could deal with its environment in such a creative and profound way. For thousands of years, people have built temples, cities, roads and other impressive structures. Bit by bit, scientists have unravelled the secrets of the natural world and you cannot imagine what our modern society would be like without this knowledge.
Like no other creatures, we are able to see the difference between a situation as it is and a situation as it could be. This has given some people the illusion that we are actually separate from nature. It is patently obvious that this illusion can have disastrous consequences. Just think of environmental pollution, overpopulation and the undeniable climate change. Therefore, many people are calling for a return to a society which is more in touch with nature. This doesn’t mean that we have to go back to living like our ancestors. On the contrary, if we dare to use Mother Nature as a source of inspiration and a mirror, then our future can be a very bright one.
Do you know the differences between a suspension bridge and an arch bridge? The architects and scientists who created them have calculated that these structures are able to withstand enormous forces like no other. If you look at the biology, you will see that the skeleton of an African elephant is built like a suspension bridge and that of an Indian elephant is like an arch bridge. Many of our inventions seem to be subconsciously based on structures that have proved to be successes in the natural world for millions of years.
Although architects can label these as coincidences, if they are wise, they will find many more examples of easily applicable solutions to concrete problems in biology. Termites have accidentally invented highly efficient forms of air conditioning for their underground metropolises, from which we can benefit. Anyone who wants to save on material costs, without compromising on sturdiness or flexibility, could study the bones of birds.
For more than 150 million years, birds have shown the capability of evolution. It is therefore no wonder that biomimetics or biomimicry, which imitates natural structures or processes, has become a fully-fledged and promising science.
In space travel, it is crucial that satellites, spacecraft and space stations are perfectly attuned to each other. After all, if a spacecraft wants to make a coupling, it will do so at a very high speed. This explains why NASA has spent a lot of time studying the jaws of insects and the hinged functions of their various components.
The field of robotics is also unthinkable without natural examples. Just like insects, robots have a hard external structure. Just like insects, modern robots must be able to react quickly and perform their functions reliably and stably. Technicians have learned a lot from the movement apparatus of the cockroach and the leverage function of insect jaws, which are able to manipulate their own weight many times over.
Due to developments in material technology, much more is possible nowadays. This also makes biomimetic design much easier. For example, think of the possibilities of spider silk. This material is stronger than steel and extremely resilient. The rough skin of a shark is made in such a way that it hardly encounters any resistance from water. Ships will consume considerably less fuel if they are built from material that lacks virtually any resistance.
Even at the smallest level, biology can open doors that would otherwise remain closed. You have undoubtedly heard of the enormous progress that has been made in the field of molecular genetics. To manipulate DNA, scientists need precision equipment. This equipment has existed at the molecular level for billions of years. Without restriction enzymes, which bacteria use to defuse viral infections, we would never have been able to cut and manipulate DNA fragments to size.
The revolutionary CRISPR-CAS9 system, which may make hereditary diseases a thing of the past, is also part of the natural standard repertoire of many bacteria. In a world with a rapidly changing climate, society demands creative solutions. It is to be expected that the summers in our regions will become drier and hotter. By linking genetic engineering and biomimetic design, we will be able to adapt our food crops accordingly.
It is clear that we can draw our inspiration from nature to create new, valuable products. The principles of Biomimetics can be taken a step further. The way in which we organise companies can also benefit from principles used by nature. Today, many organisations are struggling with their structure. They are too rigid, lack flexibility and have a culture of learned dependence. The reverse is also true, in that too much freedom and independence also creates specific problems.
Nature can also provide the necessary inspiration here; the strength of a natural ecosystem lies in the balance between the independence of elements that have their clearly defined functions and the interrelationships between the various components.
Each component and each person in your organisation has their own goals, their own priorities and their own talents, just like organisms in a biological ecosystem. By using them in an interdependent network, they are most likely to reach maturity. Your organisation can reap the benefits from this.
By rewarding people and departments with both hard-digit targets and also the degree of cooperation and synergy, you can drive and motivate your team and organisation to go forward. You will notice that loyalty and involvement increase because your employees feel far more appreciated. The chances are that there will be many more creative solutions from the shop floor than from the boardroom. In this way, you will of course create a win-win situation for the employees and the organisation.
If you want to realise sustainable change in your organisation, Happonomy may be able to help. Our solutions help to make sustainable transformation possible. If this interests you, take a look at our solutions section or just contact us.
string(3) "yes" NULLCreating a collective vegetable garden is one thing; letting local residents manage it successfully is another. For that last aspect, Roof Food collaborates with Eefje Cottenier of Methodiekfabriek in Kortrijk. As a result, they are creating a communal vegetable garden together in ‘De Nieuwe Dokken’, a future residential area in Ghent.
In the Ghent port area, between Dampoort and Muide, Belgium’s first circular residential district is taking shape, namely ‘De Nieuwe Dokken’. In various phases, 400 dwellings (in the form of houses and apartments), offices, a local store, a school and a sports hall will be built. In the courtyard of a building complex, ‘Het Noordveld’ will become a central vegetable garden of 500 square metres, and is to be created by Roof Food.
Participation project
Sabien Windels, the founder of Roof Food: “Actually, the local residents are the people who will create the vegetable garden. The intention is that they will eventually be able to maintain and manage the vegetable garden themselves. That is why it is important to involve them from the start. After all, what is the point of us determining the shape and function of a vegetable garden if the neighbourhood has no interest in it? Eefje Cottenier will help to guide the process, which will involve steps such as determining the form and functionality of the vegetable garden, giving the residents ownership and designing a management model for the garden.
Methodiekfabriek
Eefje Cottenier is the founder of both De Stuyverij and the Methodiekfabriek. She created ‘Stuyfplekken’ with De Stuyverij, where people inspire each other and work together on personal and social issues. From these and other experiences, Methodiekfabriek grew.
Eefje Cottenier: “Methodiekfabriek develops new cooperation models that encourage organisations, governments and their target groups to co-create in order to achieve a better society. Our process guidance can lead to sustainable, self-reinforcing and self-managing communities or, other things such as easily implementable designs for both public and community spaces.”
Ownership
Eefje: “In De Nieuwe Dokken, we want to inspire the creation of a central vegetable garden that will also serve as a meeting place for the entire neighbourhood. That is why it is important that the input comes from the local residents themselves and is not imposed from above. Only by actively involving people and giving them ownership can a project like this succeed. In the first phase, we hope to get to know the local residents better. In 2021, we will create a miniature vegetable garden so that it immediately becomes clear how much enthusiasm there is for the vegetable garden. We will be able to see who wants to take on which role, who has which talents, what the neighbourhood has in mind for the garden, and so on. Maybe the local residents will be interested in gardening, without having much spare time for it. This will have an impact on the types of plants in the final vegetable garden.”
Brainstorm evening
Sabien: “In early 2021, we will organise a brainstorm evening for future residents, houseboat dwellers, Ghent’s ground maintenance service and all other interested parties. The intention is to explore the various possibilities together. We will encourage those present to dream big. This is the only way to formulate new solutions. If you stay too close to reality, you will just be fishing in the same pond. We are open to hearing ideas other than the classic allotments.”
Wild ideas
Eefje: “The ideas can really go in any direction. Maybe the residents will want to create a tomato plantation and use the harvest to make passata for the pizzas they plan on baking together once a month. Anything is possible! What’s also important is that the roles are not fixed. I can imagine a career woman not having much time to work in the vegetable garden, yet once she has kids, she might like to come and visit, which is perfectly fine! It’s up to the residents to determine the direction of the vegetable garden, and then it’s up to us to work out the management model. In the following phase, we will bring the dreams (or parts of them) to reality through workgroups.”
This story was created with the support of Circular Flanders, the Flemish policy-making organisation for a circular economy.
string(3) "yes" NULLFor a period of one year, Sabien Windels, the founder of Roof Food, followed a counselling process at Happonomy, the organisation that strives for a sustainable transformation of value-driven entrepreneurs, organisations and society. This is elaborated below by Sabien and Bruno Delepierre, the founder of Happonomy.
Sabien: “‘Bruno Delepierre is the smartest man I know.’ This is how Bruno was introduced to me by Pacquita Balcaen, a former employee and board member of Roof Food late in 2019. (Sabien laughs.) Pacquita had noticed a few organisational shortcomings and advised me to contact Happonomy. Normally, I am rather reluctant towards business consultants. I have the feeling that they don’t understand either myself or Roof Food’s mission, and that they only look at the purely financial aspect of doing business.”
However, that sentence about the Bruno’s intelligence stuck in Sabien’s head and made her curious. At the end of 2019, Bruno and Sabien met for the first time and they clicked immediately. “I immediately realised that Happonomy does look at the entrepreneur behind each organisation and that person’s motives,” adds Sabien.
Bruno: “That’s right. One of the goals of Happonomy is to build more and more successful sustainable organisations. We explicitly start from the situation of the entrepreneur, because entrepreneurs can only realise their visions by creating situations that are sustainable for themselves.
We want the economic framework to match their quality of life as much as possible in terms of workload, work-life balance, income, etc. The problem is that our current economic system does not support sustainability completely and that causes tension among sustainable entrepreneurs. This was also the case with Sabien; the clash between her vision and reality was so big that her personal well-being suffered.”
In October 2019, Sabien decided to follow a short trajectory at Happonomy. This process started with a financial-economic analysis of Roof Food, i.e., which activities are undertaken and how profitable are they?
“The audit was very thought-provoking,” says Sabien. “The catering activities were far less profitable than I thought, the HR did not run smoothly, and the organisational structure also needed improvement.
Bruno: “Roof Food had seven activities back then, such as the roof dinners, the roof menus, the catering and so on. I asked Sabien to think about the extent to which these activities helped her achieve her mission and whether the figures were adding up. It was up to Sabien to decide what she wanted to prioritise.”
Sabien: “That was extremely difficult for me. I felt quite restless during that period. I knew that I had to let certain things go, although I didn’t know at the time the direction in which Roof Food would evolve. That was a difficult process. Sometimes you’re so stuck in a business frame of mind where you think that you don’t have the option to tackle it in a different way. Happonomy helped me by acting as a sounding board. It helped me to zoom out and ask myself a number of critical questions such as, “How did we end up doing catering?”, “Why did we make that choice?”, “To what extent did it contribute to our mission?”, and “What did it provide financially?”
Bruno: “At the time, Roof Food was also in a very precarious financial situation. I insisted that Sabien should address this aspect first. Otherwise, she would never be able to realise her vision and ideas. I also immediately recognised a number of challenges within the Roof Food team that are typical of visionary entrepreneurship, because, let’s face it, Sabien is not a classic entrepreneur. Sabien is one of the smartest women I know, yet she faces an enormous challenge. The problem for people with a vision is that not everyone can see that vision, and you can’t sell what other people can’t see.”
With the support of Circular Flanders, Happonomy then started a project aimed at finding solutions for sustainable entrepreneurs who clash with the current business economic laws. Happonomy developed a structured roadmap for starting entrepreneurs who want to build a more social, creative and ecological world. The model guides them step by step through four phases that help them to leap forward as an entrepreneur and organisation.
After a model for aspiring entrepreneurs, the organisation is now also working on a model for entrepreneurs who have already started. The intention is to guide them in various aspects e.g., organisational design, pricing, planning and cash flow. Within the framework of this research, Roof Food acted as a test case and Sabien could count on the support of various domain experts from the Happonomy network for a year. Everything was reviewed from subsidy applications to pricing, and from organisational design to business case.
Sabien: “I gained so much from the counselling process with Happonomy. Something Bruno taught me, for example, is that creating a sustainable business starts with creating a sustainable situation for yourself. At the end of 2019, I was completely stressed. I had 1,001 problems and didn’t know where to start. One of the first sessions with Happonomy was about my comfort at home. I live with my boyfriend on a houseboat which we heat with a wood stove. Because the wood supply was not arranged very well, I spent a lot of my time every day just gathering wood. Bruno listed the following priorities: repair the stove, provide wood and make sure that it is comfortably warm every day. It’s crazy how long I had let that situation drag on, yet I was in so much trouble at the time that I couldn’t see the trees through the forest. Thanks to Bruno, we now have a large supply of wood to keep us warm during the winter.
Bruno: “The first step in sustainable entrepreneurship always starts with asking yourself: ‘What is important to you outside of your work?’, ‘How much money do you need for sustainable entrepreneurship?’, ‘What are your talents?’ and ‘What things do you need to improve?’ Don’t forget that the engines of companies, especially in the beginning, are the entrepreneurs themselves. Every company’s engine should run optimally and that is something which many starters seem to forget, along with all its consequences.”
Sabien: “Another important lesson I have learned is that structure gives you the peace and stability you need to build a healthy organisation. In the beginning, Roof Food was mainly chaos. My working week is much more structured nowadays. While I used to have an aversion to that, I now see its benefits. I will continue to work flexibly, although things like a budget, annual planning and activities are now on the agenda as well. Happonomy also made me aware of money. Bruno instructed me to keep track of all my personal costs and expenses for three months. This gave me a clear overview of what I consider to be important, where I spend my money and which dreams I want to realise in the future. This means that you can see in writing how much you actually have to earn to make it all come true. Happonomy works very hard on that awareness about your relationship with money and what you would like to build, what your strengths and weaknesses are and where you need to position yourself in your company to shine.”
Bruno: “The latter is important. It is a classic misconception that you have to be the general manager in your company. If that role doesn’t give you energy, then it is better to involve someone else who is better at it and enjoys doing so. It’s up to you to decide how you can contribute to your company in the best way. The type of organisation you build should be in line with who you are. For example, you can work with a small core team and rely on complementary partners for certain tasks.”
Sabien: “That’s actually what’s happening now between Roof Food and Happonomy. Several urban farmers requested guidance for their project. However, that requires such a range of skills that it is difficult to do it alone. That is why we are now working together, where Roof Food provides the context-specific expertise on urban agriculture and Happonomy focuses on the general business economic context. Together we will guide clients, using resources from each of our own networks. It is a symbiosis that I never imagined could happen before I got to know Happonomy.
This story was created with the support of Circular Flanders, the Flemish policy-making organisation for a circular economy.
string(3) "yes" NULL“Sabien is one of the friendliest people I know. I have never seen her snap at, or be rude, to anyone, not even when she is under great stress. That’s what I like so much about her,” says Sarah Merabaï, one of Sabien’s closest friends over the past twenty years.
A shared passion for fun is one of the things that has kept these friends together for all these years. “I always have a good time with Sabien. It’s been the same since primary school, when we cycled to school together every day. I remember our first meeting very well. I was rather chubby as a child, yet that didn’t bother Sabien. On that very first day, she lifted me off the ground and swayed me through the air. That was extremely unexpected, and so cool! I believe that that was the beginning of our unconditional friendship.”
The sect
After they finished at high school, Sarah moved to Amsterdam and Sabien went to study in Ghent. Despite the distance, the two friends stayed in close contact. Sarah recalls, “We actually had a group of nine friends. I remember when one of the girls’ relationships ended. I told my boyfriend at the time that I’d have to go back to Belgium right away. He was surprised and asked me if I was in a sect or something! Sabien laughs and continues, “Since then, our group of friends has been called ‘The Sect’, and that name still persists to this day.”
Absurd humour
After her studies in Amsterdam, Sarah returned to Belgium and went to live with Sabien in Ghent. “That was a great period,” remembers Sarah. “It was very intense. We went out a lot, had a lot of fun and experienced the wildest adventures, without ever going in the wrong direction. Yes, we both have what it takes to be the life of the party. We don’t wait for something to happen; we make things happen ourselves. We also share the same absurd sense of humour and have wild imaginations. We can totally immerse ourselves in that, which makes us perfect allies.”
Unconditional support
Sarah experienced the founding of Roof Food from close quarters. “At the time, I was mainly there to support Sabien, rather than being a critic. I never told her to be careful or to think twice. On the contrary, I often said that she should just go for it. I’d say, ‘Go ahead, I know you can do it.’ Particularly in the early years, when everything went smoothly and Sabien won several prizes with Roof Food, I saw how passionate she was and how much energy she drew from it. Even when things started to get harder after a few years, I kept encouraging her. I saw that period as a learning experience for her. Of course, if I had noticed that things were going the wrong way with Sabien, I would have sounded the alarm. Sabien is, however, an entrepreneur by nature and I had confidence in her capabilities. I think that Sabien’s biggest advantage might also be her biggest disadvantage, in that she has to learn how to temper her enthusiasm and energy so that she doesn’t get ahead of herself.”
Self-care
Sabien: “I really appreciate how Sarah reacted. Sarah likes to be clear and prefers simple and robust solutions. I have learnt a lot from that. She taught me how to take good care of myself and not to be afraid of speaking my mind. Entrepreneurship is a very personal story after all. Her advice has always been so valuable to me. Sometimes I have learnt more from talking with her than from talking with other entrepreneurs. Friends care more about your business; they have your best interests at heart and, as outsiders, they have a more objective point of view.
Talking and crying
Sabien: “By spending so much time on Roof Food, my friendships have been quite strained for a long time. Sarah and I went camping for a weekend with another friend a while ago. We didn’t have that much fun because we were all dealing with our own problems. We talked through a lot of things and all had a good cry and that helped a lot.”
Sabien laughs and continues, “I suddenly realised how much I missed my friends and how much I had been leaning on my boyfriend for support. I didn’t want to have to do that anymore. In the end, friends give you a different kind of energy. Since that moment, I have been putting more effort into spending time with them.”
Quality over quantity
Sarah has been living in Berlin for the past year and a half, so they have to make do with simply calling each other. The disadvantage of a long-distance friendship is that it is far more difficult to build new memories. On the other hand, their long history together makes it easy to resume conversations and to get straight to the point when one of them is struggling with a problem. “For us, quality takes precedence over quantity. We have an uncomplicated and unconditional friendship.”
This story was created with the support of Circular Flanders, the Flemish policy-making organisation for a circular economy.
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