Chicago Bioneers Starts Tomorrow!!!

Great Lakes Bioneers Chicago starts tomorrow! 

We're so excited to be a part of this amazing event. Check out biomimicry events on Friday's SHELTER and COMMUNITY RESILIENCY sessions as well as Sunday's workshop on Community Resiliency Inspired by Nature! And our good friends at The Resiliency Institute are presenting a workshop on permaculture and food forests on Sunday as well! 

Be sure to join in and Celebrate Community Resiliency!

Chicago Bioneers Program Guide is Out!

Everything you ever wanted to know about Chicago Bioneers - coming next week! Be sure to check out the 'SHELTER' session on Friday morning (Nov 1) and the "Community Resilience" workshop on Sunday (Nov 3)!

Please view the link: http://issuu.com/glbchicago/docs/2013_eventguide_final5.0

Attend Chicago Bioneers for FREE on Friday, November 1st - VOLUNTEER!

Would you like to attend Chicago Bioneers for FREE on Friday, November 1st? 

We are looking for three volunteers who would take notes at the SHELTER session featuring Biomimicry Chicago collaborator Colin Rohlfing and moderated by Amy Coffman Phillips. We are looking for volunteers who will take notes for the table hosts at this world café style event. In exchange for volunteering at the morning session, you will have free access to the event for the rest of the day, including a keynote by David Orr in the morning. 

For more information on Friday’s session, visit the website and reply or contact Amy if you are interested. 

Event: Envisioning a World Transformed

Amy is excited to present the inspiration of #biomimicry as it relates to social transformation at the upcoming "Envisioning a World Transformed" symposium. Hope to see you there!

Join us for our second annual event, Envisioning a World Transformed, featuring Chicago change-makers making a positive difference in their local communities. This year we are celebrating Leadership Transformed by taking a closer look at Chicago leaders transforming their industries.

When: Sunday, October 20 | 11 am-5 pm

Location: Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum | 2430 N. Cannon Drive, Chicago

Enjoy a day filled with interactive sharing, personal action planning, and an organic lunch. Join the transformative movement by connecting with like-minded networks and gather tools and resources to help create change within the local and global community.

Get inspired by a few of Greenheart Transforms’ featured presenters:

- Dr. Cassandra Vieten, President of Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS)
- Victor Saad, Founder of Leap Year Project and Experiment Institute
- Amanda Britt, Founder of Panzanzee
- Amy Coffman Phillips, Founder and Project Coordinator of B-Collaborative
- Dr. Darren Weissman , Holistic Physician, Developer of The LifeLine Technique®
- Mark Anthony Lord, Founder of the Bodhi Center

For more information, email mrauch@greenhearttransforms.org or call 312-264-1645.

Learn more and register for Envisioning a World Transforms at http://www.greenhearttransforms.org/event/envisioning-a-world-transformed

How do you envision a world transformed? Comment below or share on Twitter #EWT2013

Biomimicry Perspective: Resilient Communities on the Edge

How can we learn from ecosystems in nature to design more resilient communities? Biomimicry Chicago co-founder, Amy Coffman Phillips, wrote an article on this topic for The Resiliency Institute, a local suburban permaculture advocacy group. Read the article and let us know what you think!

Ecotones in Nature (creative commons image credit: wikipedia.org)

"Studies have shown that America has become much more polarized in the last twenty-five years in terms of race, socioeconomic status, and particularly political world views. These divisions have been exacerbated by structural forces, such as fragmented news media, increasing disparity of socio-economic conditions, and indoctrinated societal world-views, to name a few.

Each of these barriers are complex and interrelated, but if you accept we have inadvertently created these structural barriers that serve to disconnect our communities, we should be able to identify and break down these barriers as well. Doing so would foster interconnected, resilient communities that are able to resolve disputes and weather disturbance more effectively than is possible today.

As a biomimic and architect, I look to nature for inspiration to design buildings, communities, and cities that function more like a healthy ecosystem – rich with interconnections, diversity, and mutualisms. Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about ecotones. Until last year, I wouldn’t have even known what that term meant, but now I see them and think about the parallels between ecosystem communities and our human communities every day. So what is an ecotone and what could we learn from ecosystems in nature to inspire more diverse, interconnected, and resilient communities?"

 Click here to continue reading.