1. Be Constantly Inspired by Nature
2. Change the Rules of the Game
3. Focus on What is Locally Available
4. See Change as the Only Constant

Taking inspiration from nature starts with understanding nature’s own principles: everything has at least one purpose—and usually several purposes, nothing is wasted, solutions are very efficient and use the least possible energy and materials, everything is interdependent and part of a complex ecosystem with many parts, and course-correction happens automatically.

Pauli’s solution set—much of it tested in real-world projects—includes circular systems where “residue” (he prefers not to think of it as waste) becomes input for the next link in the loop. So the 99.8 of the plant that coffee processors now pay to get rid of becomes fertile ground to grow shitake mushrooms (p. 10, p. 135, and many other references) as well as provide several other benefits including odor control (pp. 137-138); medical supply companies can mimic the mosquito’s conical penetrator to reduce injection pain; HVAC designers can copy termites’ ancient zero-energy temperature control for buildings (pp. 53-56)—or the way zebras’ stripes create convection currents and vortices that keep them cool outdoors in the hot African summers (pp. 56-57). Architects can design inexpensive earthquake-proof bamboo homes and regenerate the bamboo far more quickly than a forest (pp. 253-255).

Pauli envisions a world where we no longer need toxic batteries, health-hazardous radio-wave-based Internet (he prefers to use light), or even solar and wind farms. Innovations with cascading benefits across multiple industries will make them obsolete while raising living standards, health outcomes, local self-reliance, and connection with community. And much of this is stuff we already know how to do. Three among many examples:

• Seaweed-based (p. 112) or even maggot-based antibacterial protection (p. 162) can replace antibiotics
• Tomato processing residue can be turned into sunscreen and lipstick (pp. 181-182)
• Mining, that traditionally dirty industry, can create paper from stone tailings (pp. 214-215), as well as pure drinking water as a byproduct while chelating bacteria can detoxify the metals that used to pollute that water (pp. 218-19).

He’s posted 109 more at https://www.theblueeconomy.org/en/project-library/
Pauli says we humans were designed to live in alkaline environments, yet many human constructions create an acid world that’s not healthy for us. Since this was the first time I encountered this idea, I checked with Terry Cline of Dwellright. Terry is an architect and Feng Shui practitioner who pays a lot of attention to the interaction of human factors with spaces. He and I are each other’s clients and friends. Terry agrees that our lives would be better if they were more alkaline.

One caution: while Pauli’s ideas are brilliant and his/his colleagues’ implementations are astonishing, his writing is less approachable than it could be (one more pass by a skilled editor would have helped a lot). He’s Austrian and he writes with the dense syntax of his first language (German). He’s also a non-linear thinker, so the book’s organization is a bit rough (and made worse by the lack of an index in a book that cries out for one). And I wish he would not revisit the same examples over and over again. But it’s worth the struggle. I took 9 pages of notes and feel that my life is better for reading it.