Page 8 - The HandPrint_Sept-Oct

Tom Marting and Emily Kennedy

Receive the Maurice Holland Award

Pictured Left to Right:
Robynne Sherill, Chief
People and Culture
Officer; Tom Marting,
Facilities and Resource
Management Director,
Environmental;
Dr. Emily Kennedy,
Director of External
Relations for the
Biomimicry Research
and Innovation Center
at The University of
Akron; and Srini
Venkatesh, Chief
Science Officer and
Vice President

By Kelly McGlumphy, Marketing Services

Tom Marting, Facilities and Resource Management Director, Environmental, along with Dr. Emily
Kennedy, Director of External Relations for the Biomimicry Research and Innovation Center at The
University of Akron, were awarded the 2017 Industrial Research Institute’s (IRI) Maurice Holland Award
for their article published in Research-Technology Management’s (RTM) July-August 2016 issue.
Through this award winning article, “Biomimicry: Streamlining the Front-End of Innovation for
Environmentally Sustainable Products,” Tom and Emily have helped advance the study of biomimicry
by quantifying and qualifying the advantages of its application for solution discovery.

In the press release announcing the award, Jim Euchner, RTM Editor-in-Chief and Vice President of
Global Innovation at Goodyear said, “It’s invigorating to encounter original and insightful research into
an emerging model of new product design. Sustainability and biomimicry are important practices for
industry and it is truly an honor to highlight a study that we can point to that might help a company
better utilize them.”

The winning article was selected according to the criteria of significance to the field of R&D,
technology, innovation management, originality of new management concepts, and excellence in clarity
of presentation. The article is a case study based on biomimicry innovation projects completed by Tom
and Emily at GOJO between 2012 and 2015, and included the participation of more than 30 GOJO
employees. The article is now required reading for Great Lakes Biomimicry’s “Fundamentals of
Biomimicry” Professional Education Program. The research presented explores the application of
biomimicry at GOJO as a way to drive environmentally sustainable product innovation. Tom’s work is
another example of Sustainable Ways of Working and our constant forward momentum in the area of
sustainability.

To read the article, go to www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/08956308.2016.1185342.

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