2/28/2023

Assignment 4
ID5200: Intro to Biomimicry

Aryamaan Singh
CE20B017
Contents
Question 1 ............................................................................................................................................... 1
(a) ........................................................................................................................................................ 1
Goal 1 .............................................................................................................................................. 1
Goal 2 .............................................................................................................................................. 1
(b) ........................................................................................................................................................ 2
(c) ........................................................................................................................................................ 2
(d) ........................................................................................................................................................ 2
Solution is for: ................................................................................................................................. 2
Where it will work: .......................................................................................................................... 3
Other constraints and conditions: .................................................................................................. 3
(e) ........................................................................................................................................................ 3
(f) ......................................................................................................................................................... 3
(g) ........................................................................................................................................................ 4

Question 1
(a)
I am focusing on UNSDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production. My goals
for this UNSDG are:

Goal 1
Target 12.A: Support developing countries' scientific and technological capacity
for sustainable consumption and production.
Indicator 12.A.1: The amount of support to developing countries on research and
development for sustainable consumption and production and environmentally
sound technologies.

Goal 2
Target 12.B: Develop and implement tools to monitor sustainable tourism.
Indicator 12.B: The number of sustainable tourism strategies or policies and
implemented action plans with agreed monitoring and evaluation tools.
(b)
I want to address the problem of reducing food wastage across its life cycle.
13.3% of the world’s food is lost after harvesting and before reaching retail
markets. Also, 17% of total food is wasted at the consumer level. The lost food
if saved can contribute towards combatting world hunger substantially. Every
country in the world faces this issue and solving this will have a global impact.
Solving this specific problem involves a detailed analysis of the life cycle a food
item goes through. It includes harvesting, transport, storage, processing, retail
at grocery shops and, consumption at households and restaurants. This long
value chain generates food waste at each step and addressing it can result in a
multi-pronged solution that will:
• Optimise the supply chain for food.
• Promote development of innovative technologies for each step of the
chain and increase its efficiency by reducing food loss.
• Raising awareness among the society about best practises for food
consumption that generates less waste both at house and restaurants.

(c)
The functions I want my solution to have are:
• Account for wasted food at each step of life cycle.
• Estimate the food demand for each household, restaurant, and grocery
stores.
• Educate farmers on best practices to store the harvest.
• Help estimate the best selling price for their produce.
• Prevent the harvested food from perishing due to microbes and fungi
and increase its life.

(d)
The key contexts that my solution will address are:

Solution is for:
The solution has a primary focus on producers that will help them reduce the
wasted food due to improper harvesting technique and storage. It will also
enable the consumers and retailers to estimate their demand / requirement
precisely. Overall, it will enable the government to account for each step of
food life cycle and make appropriate policies.

Where it will work:

The proposed solution will be applicable in rural and urban areas both along
with the government institutions.

Other constraints and conditions:

The solution must cater for varying climate conditions in different part of the
world, laws in different nations, economic state of the users both rural and
urban.

(e)
The questions are:
1. How might we keep food clean from bacteria and fungi?
2. How might we keep organic material clean from bacteria and fungi?
3. How might we absorb moisture from the air?
4. How might we capture moisture from the air?
5. How might we find out metabolic requirements of an organism?
6. How might we estimate the amount of food needed by an induvial?
7. How might we find out nutrient requirement of an organism?
8. How might we transport food faster?
9. How might we transport food without perishing it?
10.How might we transport organic matter through long distances?

(f)
1. Too narrow – because of “food”
2. Just right
3. Just right
4. Too broad – does not specify what “capture” implies
5. Too broad – does not specify which metabolic requirement to focus on
6. Too narrow – because of “food”
7. Just right
8. Too narrow – because of “faster”
9. Too narrow – because of the condition of avoiding perish
10.Just right
(g)
How might we absorb moisture from the air?