The DARPA Hoodie is a computer-generated garment built to use as little material as possible. Available on Betabrand’s Web site, it was designed after Jonathan Bachrach and Saul Griffith, of Otherlab, won a grant from DARPA, the defense department’s tech research arm, to come up with algorithms that could convert 3-D objects into 2-D patterns. The software they developed was originally intended to create programmable matter: a new functional form of matter, based on mesoscale particles, which can reversibly assemble into complex 3D objects upon external command.

The most basic way to make materials more ecologically friendly is to simply use less of them. Digital technology, for example, allows us to put songs, books, magazines, newspapers, TV shows, movies, most any kind of media, onto increasingly smaller computer chips. By trading in the atoms of the books, CDs, DVDs, glossy magazines, and newsprint for the bits of digital files, we save using countless resources--the trees for the paper, the plastic for the packaging, the fuel used for shipping, and the energy used to operate brick and mortar retail outlets.

While beneficial in terms of dematerialization, digitization of culture is not entirely ecologically benign. As we consume ever more digital media, the amount of technological hardware we use to access that media steadily increases. And the heavy metals and toxic chemicals that go into constructing computers, mp3 players, and cell phones--which may include lead, mercury, bromine, and chromium--present significant disposal and recycling challenges. More and cheaper gadgets are an inevitable market response to consumer desire for these products, and there is as of yet no comprehensive strategy for dealing with this e-waste.

In its simplest definition, biomimicry is applying lessons learned from the study of natural methods and systems to the design of technology. In her 1997 book Biomimicry, science writer Janine Benyus articulated nine principles of biomimicry: 1. Nature runs on sunlight. 2. Nature uses only the energy it needs. 3. Nature fits form to function. 4. Nature recycles everything. 5. Nature rewards cooperation. 6. Nature banks on diversity. 7. Nature demands local expertise. 8. Nature curbs excesses from within. 9. Nature taps the power of limits.

Recent innovators have applied biomimicry principles to a wide range of materials. Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, Inc. has developed the industry’s first MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical systems) display for mobile devices based on the physical properties of butterflies’ wings. The display works by reflecting light so that specific wavelengths interfere with each other to create color. The reflective displays, based on interferometric modulation (IMOD) technology, offer a significant reduction in power consumption as compared to other display technologies, while extending device battery life, and reducing environmental impact. These displays require no supplemental lighting in most ambient lighting environments and can be viewed in bright sunlight.

The search for alternatives to petroleum-based composites is of particular concern in the ecomaterials space. Nonrenewable and potentially toxic, petrochemicals are nonetheless ubiquitous in the production of durable, commercial-grade composites. The need to find economically viable, environmentally benign alternatives represents a significant challenge and the work being done in the field of bio-based materials represents one of the most promising areas of research.

Eben Bayer and his colleagues at Ecovative Design have developed a process by which such materials as seed husks and mushrooms can be used to create materials for a variety of uses including packaging and insulation. The company uses the biochemical machinery of mushrooms to create a resin similar to plastic, but which is much more environmentally friendly. Ecovative was named a “Technology Pioneer for 2011” by the World Economic Forum--one of about 30 companies worldwide to be named.

Self-healing materials are a class of materials with the structurally incorporated ability to repair damage caused by normal wear and tear. Initiation of cracks and other types of damage on a microscopic level can change certain intrinsic properties, and eventually lead to failure of the material. A material that can intrinsically correct damage caused by normal usage could lower production costs through longer part lifetime, reduction of inefficiency caused by degradation, as well as prevent failure costs.

At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Scott White and colleagues have developed a structural polymeric material with the ability to autonomically heal cracks. Autonomic healing is accomplished by incorporating a microencapsulated healing agent and a catalytic chemical trigger within an epoxy matrix. An approaching crack ruptures embedded microcapsules, releasing healing agent into the crack plane through capillary action. Polymerization of the healing agent is triggered by contact with the embedded catalyst, bonding the crack faces and leading to more than more than 90% recovery in toughness in fracture experiments.

As an ecomaterials strategy, dematerialization is not just about reducing the impact of materials themselves but also reducing secondary impacts, or embedded costs. Reducing the distance between points of manufacture and points of sale saves fuel and reduces overall materials impact.

Co-founded in 2007 by former Marine and Harvard Business School graduate Jay Rogers, Local Motors is premised on the notion of combining the crowd-sourcing and DIY movements with staid auto manufacturing. Amateurs and professionals submit designs to Local Motors’s Web site, and users vote on the winners in a monthly contest. If, among other factors, a vehicle generates enough buzz that the company thinks it could sell at least 500 of them, the engineers fine-tune the design to make it feasible. Then Local Motors sets up a micro-factory where buyers build the car themselves under guidance from the company’s instructors for an estimated $50,000.

Local Motors plans to release between 500 and 2,000 units of each model. The cars are not meant to compete with the major automakers, but rather fill in the gaps in the marketplace for unique designs. Rogers uses the analogy of a jar of marbles, each of which represents a vehicle from a major automaker. In between the marbles is empty space, space that can be filled with grains of sand--and those grains are Local Motors cars.

As a detoxification strategy, design for disassembly is concerned primarily with disassembling computers and cell phones easily into their component parts in order to ensure that heavy metals do not end up in landfills.

Active disassembly is a method of disassembling products into their separate components by creating gadgets that can break apart just by being exposed to heat or magnetism. It allows for a clean, nondestructive, quick and efficient method of component separation. This saves money, and the materials can be recovered more efficiently.

Utilizing active disassembly, Nokia has created a prototype of a cell phone that dissembles itself in two seconds. Today, most cell phones and other small electronics are shredded instead of taken apart for recycling, because the disassembly time is too expensive for the amount of material reclaimed.