Janine Benyus is the founder of Biomimicry 3.8, a Missoula, Mont.-based design consultancy named not after a version of some proprietary software, but rather the 3.8 billion years nature has been doing its own design “R&D.” The firm is the product of Benyus’s landmark 1997 book, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, which introduced the world to the idea of applying natural principles to human problems. At the time, biomimicry was a barely recognized field. Now…