AskNature Selected as Finalist for Prestigious Design Competition

AskNature has been selected as a finalist for the third-annual INDEX: Award out of 966 submissions from the world’s leading design innovators. INDEX: is a Danish-based, non-profit organization, and the INDEX: Award is given to the world’s top institutes of design that meet the organization’s rigorous criteria for improving life. The competition has the distinction of providing the largest monetary design prize in the world, worth €500,000.

Nature has spent 3.8 billion years developing sustainable designs. AskNature translates biological knowledge into information that designers, engineers, business leaders, architects, and chemists can use to create designs that improve life. Our submission to the INDEX: Award showcased some of the products inspired by nature that are featured on AskNature. One example is Qualcomm’s electronic display screen mirasol®, which is based on the light reflective design of butterfly wings that creates brilliant colors without pigments. mirasol® displays are three times more power efficient than standard LCD displays, thus creating less C02 emissions and extending battery life. And, longer-lasting batteries mean less waste for the landfill.

We also featured the Vitalis water bottle in our submission. Designers of the Vitalis water bottle used AskNature to find inspiration for their biomimetic product: a PET bottle modeled after the white bark pine tree. The Vitalis bottle is 100% recyclable and is the strongest and lightest PET bottle on the market; this innovation will save 250 tons of raw materials per year.

Both the mirasol® and Vitalis designs highlight the potential magnitude of AskNature’s benefit to society. With its free catalogue of biological research, design application ideas, videos and photographs, and links to experts, AskNature can inspire groundbreaking sustainable designs that are as creative and profound as the innovators who use it.

AskNature is one of 61 finalists that will compete for the biennial design prize. Awards will be announced on September 2, 2011, in Copenhagen and broadcast worldwide in an online live steam. HRH the Crown Prince and HRH the Crown Princess of Denmark will lead the event, which will feature more than 1,000 Danish and international designers, politicians, business leaders, students, and celebrities. The award will be presented to five different winners in five categories: Body, Work, Home, Play, and Community. An international INDEX: Jury made up of designers, design scholars and thinkers, business people, and curators will choose the winners. AskNature has been selected as a finalist in the Work category.

All of the finalists’ designs will be exhibited at the Royal Danish Playhouse in Copenhagen, Denmark, in September 2011. After three weeks in Copenhagen, the exhibit will go on a world tour of 12 countries. Last year’s exhibit was seen by nearly 10 million people. The exhibit design will feature several 12-foot black, organic shapes with square, golden insets containing the displayed designs. The shapes will be covered with solar cells powering LED-lights to illuminate the exhibit at night.

We are thrilled to follow up last year’s Earth Award win for AskNature with this prestigious honor. We will share more information about the design exhibit once the tour schedule is released.