READ SOME OF THE REVIEWS OF DR. JOHN TODD’S BOOK, “HEALING EARTH." Order a copy here.
“Reading ‘Healing Earth’ will restore your spirit and keep hope alive.” Hazel Henderson, Ethical Markets
“‘Healing Earth’ is a bold vision that these dangerously chaotic times demand and our children and grandchildren deserve.” Greg Watson, Director of Policy and Systems Design, Schumacher Center for a New Economics
“One of the most remarkable books I have ever read.” Arthur Hammond, writer and activist.
“Great story-telling and he always manages to strike a wonderful balance between the simplicity of the telling and the complexity of the ecosystems he describes.” Rebecca Todd, Ph.D., Professor of Neuroscience, the University of British Columbia
“Dr. Todd presents a message that stands out from the usual mass of despairing messages about climate change.” Editorial, Environmental Science Engineering Magazine. Feb. 1, 2019
“I am enthralled by ‘HEALING EARTH.’” Mira Rubin, “Sustainability Now,” March 16, 2019
This is beautiful; thank you. I immediately ordered the book. We need these voices of hope!
Thank you for this review. I think Earth Day is every day. I was delighted to read the paragraph about Louis Bromvield. I lived near Malabar Farm in Ohio. The teaching that Bromfield did about caring for the land, interacting, enriching the soil for sustainable growing was a very big contribution. I liked the story about his digging a deep ditch in the field where he grew alfalfa. He took many group of farmers out to this demonstration so they could see how deep the alfalfa roots and brought nourishment up from deep in the soil. The idea that the soil needed to be nourished was not understood. This was new information.
Todd Ecological to Collaborate with Biohabitats
March 8, 2018
Woods Hole, Mass.
Ecological consulting firm Biohabitats Inc. has joined forces with pioneering ecological designer and “living machine” originator, Dr. John Todd, to engineer and build natural systems for the treatment of wastewater and the restoration of degraded water bodies. Dr. Todd will be working exclusively with Biohabitats’ interdisciplinary team to ensure that his nearly 50-year legacy of visionary work continues to grow and push the boundaries of ecological design and engineering.
Dr. Todd is known for his groundbreaking work designing analogs of natural ecosystems for the purposes of treating wastewater and remediating environmental contamination. Influenced by Buckminster Fuller and H.T. Odum, he was one of the original “Bioneers.” and has influenced a generation of designers. His Eco-Machines® and floating restorers have helped rehabilitate a wide range of water bodies throughout the world and inspired a generation of wastewater technologies.
While Dr. Todd will continue to pursue work through John Todd Ecological Design, the firm he founded in 1988, he views the partnership with Biohabitats as a way to bring his pioneering water treatment and recycling technologies to many communities throughout the world. “I’m excited to find a technical home to help carry forward my work with Eco-Machines®, floating wetlands, restorers and aquatic ecological restoration,” said Dr. Todd.
Biohabitats has a long history of designing ecological wastewater treatment systems centered on constructed wetlands technology and is a natural partner for Dr. Todd. Many of Biohabitats’ senior staff began their careers working with him, and many more have been greatly influenced by his work.
“More and more communities are recognizing the advantages of decentralized, nature-based wastewater treatment systems,” said Biohabitats’ president Keith Bowers. “Applying our experience and technical expertise to John Todd’s imaginative approach of using natural processes to restore ecology means we can help these communities to become more sustainable and resilient.”
Biohabitats is a consulting firm that applies the science of ecology to restoring ecosystems, conserving habitat, and regenerating life-sustaining natural systems through research, planning, design, engineering and construction. Biohabitats has designed and executed hundreds of ecological restoration, conservation planning and regenerative design projects since the company’s founding in 1982.
New Institutional Directions for 2016
By Dr. John Todd
Ocean Arks International was founded as an educational not-for-profit organization 35 years ago. Its primary goal was to communicate positive and significant information about the Earth and its stewardship through the journal Annals of Earth. The publishing was the brainchild and creative focus of Nancy Jack Todd. At the same time, Ocean Arks became a pioneering organization that developed ecological technologies for the protection and healing of damaged environments, both aquatic and terrestrial. My role was to inspire and oversee the evolution of a technological shift away from dependency on energy intensive, heavily engineered systems to a more carbon neutral, green and ecological future.
By 1990 it began to seem there might be commercial potential for the living technologies that we were creating. With partners, I started several companies, including John Todd Ecological Design, a small consulting firm. We did not have immediate financial success with the new companies; however, over the following decades, more than100 innovative and successful projects were implemented around the world.
There was a symbiosis between Ocean Arks and the company we came to call JTED. When a project was valuable, but very risky, we would seek philanthropic support and Ocean Arks would undertake the challenge. If the project was in an area in which we had experience, like sewage treatment, then JTED, because of its engineering capabilities would take on the project. It was not always entirely clear-cut but there is no doubt that, in spite of our scarce resources, the two types of organizations working together kept the technological innovation alive and well.
New Engineering Alliance
Late this past fall, however, the unexpected happened. JTED’s engineering group, which was comprised of two engineers-in-training and our project coordinator, left to establish their own company. Although this at first seemed a setback, it then became an opportunity to think anew. I asked several leading ecological engineering practitioners if they knew of someone in their professional world who could create an engineering alliance for JTED. I was interested in someone who was not only professionally competent, but also had the social skills to coordinate a number of engineering and design firms on projects of a very different nature. My first choice was Erin English, a senior engineer at a leading environmental and engineering firm called Biohabitats. Erin is an engineer who had worked with us at Ocean Arks International a number of years ago. She was the engineer for the award winning eco-machine at the Omega Institute’s new Center for Sustainable Living. This was the first facility to qualify for the Living Building Challenge. For the Omega project, she was employed by Natural Systems International, a firm based in Santa Fe, N.M. It was subsequently purchased by Biohabitats, her current employer (www.biohabitats.com).
Erin liked the idea of an engineering alliance with us at JTED. Since then I also have come to appreciate her company, Biohabitats. It represents a range of talents and the breadth of its reach is truly impressive. It is based upon principles of Earth stewardship. By the first of April this year we reached an agreement for JTED and Biohabitats to collaborate.