Many organizations have found themselves well advanced in their sustainability strategies and reaching the limits of progress made through eco-efficiency measures and regulatory compliance. Looking for novel approaches and solutions, many managers are turning to bioinspiration and related fields such as biomimicry, nature-inspired innovation, circular economy, and cradle to cradle, as tools for sustainability-oriented innovation. This innovation paradigm has been gaining popularity across disciplines in recent decades as the world grapples with the challenge of sustainable development. This book offers a succinct guide for managers and sustainability professionals who are interested in exploring various aspects of business inspired by nature. With applicability ranging from technological, organizational, and system-building innovations, there is a broad realm of possibilities that suit a manager’s scope of influence regardless of their position within the organization. This book aims to exhibit the applications of business inspired by nature that extend beyond the boundaries of the organization and encourage open innovation with novel partners in unlikely scenarios, with all partners aligned by the principles of natural systems.

Organizations are commonly thrust into hostile operating environments where they are required to make strategic decisions that involve significant and costly tradeoffs. Such hostile environments may be endemic such as an economic recession or idiosyncratic such as a predatory action by an adversary. Many features of such hostile environments parallel those of living organisms that also demonstrate fine-tuned strategies to improve their survivability under adverse conditions. How can organizations use these “bioinspired strategies” to survive, and even potentially innovate? This book shows that the same three capabilities essential for the survival of living organisms in harsh environments – efficiency, resilience, and prominence – are also critical for organizations in their process of navigating through their own hostile environments. Throughout the book, the authors provide organizational executives with a systematic framework for thinking about strategic decision-making in a hostile environment leaning on analysis of real-world cases to draw out ontologies and methods for guiding their teams through disruptions, change management, innovation, and process improvements. In the first part, organizations are provided with a systematic approach to analyzing three survivability influences – forces, resources, and observers and their interrelationships. While all three influences are active across all organisms (and organizations), the exact nature of their interrelationship and the significance of each influence are unique to every organism (or organization). The framework helps organizations nail down the specific features of their operating environment that can help or hinder survivability by analyzing the three influences. Organizations can respond to external influences by developing three-pronged capabilities – efficiency, resilience, and prominence (ERP) – that respond to the three survivability influences. Organizations often struggle with identifying the appropriate strategies to apply under different conditions. Fortunately, nature provides several mechanisms that can be analogically applied to guide business strategies. The book contains many illustrations and examples of strategic principles observed among living organisms that can help an organization develop ERP capability. Finally, the book introduces seven strategic design heuristics – Combination, Elimination, Separation, Segmentation, Replication, Dynamics, and Maximization – observed in a living system that can be flexibly utilized to generate ideas to achieve strategic ends.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed revised selected papers of the 10th International Conference on Bioinspired Optimization Models and Their Applications, BIOMA 2018, held in Paris, France, in May 2018. The 27 revised full papers were selected from 53 submissions and present papers in all aspects of bioinspired optimization research such as new algorithmic developments, high-impact applications, new research challenges, theoretical contributions, implementation issues, and experimental studies.

The two volumes LNCS 9107 and 9108 constitute the proceedings of the International Work-Conference on the Interplay Between Natural and Artificial Computation, IWINAC 2015, held in Elche, Spain, in June 2015. The total of 103 contributions was carefully reviewed and selected from 190 submissions during two rounds of reviewing and improvement. The papers are organized in two volumes, one on artificial computation and biology and medicine, addressing topics such as computational neuroscience, neural coding and neuro-informatics, as well as computational foundations and approaches to the study of cognition. The second volume deals with bioinspired computation in artificial systems; topics alluded are bio-inspired circuits and mechanisms, bioinspired programming strategies, and bioinspired engineering AI&KE.

Outlining origins of the field and latest research trends, this Research Handbook offers a unique and cutting-edge take on the numerous avenues to responsible management in the 21st century. Renowned contributors present iconic viewpoints that have formed the foundation of responsible management research, introducing cutting-edge conceptual lenses for the study of the responsible management process.

Biomimicry, the practice of observing then mimicking nature’s strategies to solve business challenges, offers a path to healthy profit while working in partnership, and even reciprocity, with the natural world. Other books have described biomimicry, its uses, and its benefits. This book is the first to show readers how they can successfully bring biomimicry and bioinspired design into their companies based on what other businesses have already achieved. Fashioned through storytelling, this book blends snapshots of five successful companies – Nike, Interface, Inc., PAX Scientific, Sharklet Technologies, and Encycle – which decided to partner with nature by deploying biomimicry. The book details how they discovered the practices, introduced them to staff, engaged in the process, and measured outcomes. The book concludes with challenges for readers to determine their own next steps in business and offers practical and useful resources to get there. By revealing the stories of each professional’s journey with lessons they learned, then providing resources and issuing a challenge and pathway to do business better, this book serves as a tool for entrepreneurs, seasoned professionals, and students to emulate nature’s brilliance, apply it at work, and contribute to a healthier, more prosperous world.

The mystique of biologically inspired (or bioinspired) paradigms is their ability to describe and solve complex relationships from intrinsically very simple initial conditions and with little or no knowledge of the search space. Edited by two prominent, well-respected researchers, the Handbook of Bioinspired Algorithms and Applications reveals the

This book gathers the refereed proceedings of the Artificial Intelligence and Bioinspired Computational Methods Section of the 9th Computer Science On-line Conference 2020 (CSOC 2020), held on-line in April 2020. Artificial intelligence and bioinspired computational methods now represent crucial areas of computer science research. The topics presented here reflect the current discussion on cutting-edge hybrid and bioinspired algorithms and their applications.

There is now widespread understanding that business and management must evolve and act responsibly in the world giving full consideration to people and planet, not just profit. Principles of Management: Practicing Ethics, Sustainability, Responsibility was the first official textbook of the United Nations global initiative network, Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME). Now fully revised and updated with three brand new chapters on communicating, innovating and leading, this accessible and engaging textbook provides an introduction to management while empowering you to think ethically and sustainably in order to become a responsible manager. It also includes essential workplace skills for the 21st century and coverage of the various management occupations that you will go on to fill after your studies. Exclusive interviews with management pioneers and professionals help bring theories and concepts to life throughout the text as do the all new case studies which include Lego, Patagonia and Greta Thunberg. Worksheets and exercises make for an active learning experience alongside the supporting online resources provided to your lecturer for dissemination. The textbook includes coverage of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which are central to business education and practice today. It can be used for introductory management courses as well as courses that cover business ethics, business and society, corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainability and responsible management.