John Todd, a global leader in sustainability and ecological water purification, will speak on “Sustainability Through Ecological Design” on Thursday, April 14, at 7 p.m. in Olin 115.
His talk, part of the “Sustainable Development” series sponsored by Union's Environmental Studies program, is free and open to the public. (His talk was postponed from an earlier date due to weather.)
Todd is a global leader in the field of ecological water purification. Ocean Arks International, founded by Todd in 1981 in response to natural resource exploitation and depletion, disseminates ideas and practices of ecological sustainability throughout the world.
He is author of over 200 technical and popular articles on biology and planetary stewardship. A professor at the University of Vermont, he was assistant professor of ethology at San Diego State University, and assistant scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
In 1969 he co-founded the New Alchemy Institute to create a science and practice based on ecological precepts. He also co-founded Living Technologies Inc., an ecological design, engineering, and construction firm in Burlington, Vt., and Living Technologies in Findhorn, Scotland. He sits on a number of environmental and technical boards.
Todd is a leader in the field of ecological design. He has described his work in a series of books: The Village as Solar Ecology (1980), Tomorrow is Our Permanent Address (1980), Reinhabiting Cities & Towns: Designing for Sustainability (1981) and Bioshelters, Ocean Arks, City Farming: Ecology as the Basis of Design (1984). This last book has been revised and published as From Eco-cities to Living Machines (1994).
Todd has received numerous accolades for his work. He was profiled in Inventing Modern America, a publication of the Lemelson-MIT Program for Invention and Innovation, which features the development of his signature ecological waste treatment systems. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Green Mountain College in 2000, and received the Bioneers Lifetime Achievement Award two years previous. Also in 1998, he and Nancy Jack Todd received the Lindbergh Award in recognition of their work in technology and the environment.