219 Greenconnect

If you innovated for 3.8 billion years, how creative would you be? Very! So it is with nature. Innovation is just what it has been doing since the beginning of time: designing processes and systems and figuring out other ways to survive. From the beginning, humans have looked to nature for new ideas. Leonardo da Vinci of the Renaissance, for example, watched flying birds for hours. From them, he learned and replicated aerodynamic principles and built gliders, a helicopter and other flying machines. da Vinci’s technique is still useful as people solve complex problems. Today, it is called “biomimcry” - a creative practice of observing and copying nature. The tool is used by innovators in businesses, medicine, organizations, transportation, technology and more. The Center for Creative Solutions, Inc., a local non-profit organization, sponsors two annual events, northwest Indiana’s celebration of World Creativity and Innovation Week in April and the Innovation Forum in the fall. In addition, it offers other p