John Todd

University of Vermont

Todd taught at the University of Vermont as a guest lecturer beginning in 1997. He became a research professor in 1999. He is now a research professor emeritus and distinguished lecturer.

George D. Aiken Center, University of Vermont

As part of the green redesign of the Aiken Center at the University of Vermont, John Todd Ecological Design, Inc. supported the creation of the Aiken Center Eco Machine between 2006 and 2012.

Much of the design work for the water treatment plant was done by Matt Beamas, one of Todd's graduate students, who presented his master's thesis on the work in 2010. In addition to treating all of the wastewater from the Aiken Center, the system provides opportunities for ongoing ecological design research at the school.

The wastewater system includes three separate trains, for experimental study of the system's use.

The building is considered to be "a national model for green renovation of a campus building". It has been awarded LEED Platinum certification.

New Alchemy Institute

In 1969 the Todds and William O. McLarney co-founded the New Alchemy Institute in Cape Cod, Massachusetts

to "engage in scientific research in the public interest on ecologically and behaviourally planned agriculture systems and rural land based communities."

The institute was a "fusion of technology and counterculture".

Its members proposed to apply principles and design strategies from the biological sciences to technology in ways that would be economically and environmentally sustainable.

Although the New Alchemy Institute dissolved in 1991,

it has been described as "a catalyst of change promoting the development of new ecological design solutions, alternative technologies and methods of ecological food production and waste treatment."

One of the approaches they developed was the concept of bioshelters, "greenhouse-like architectural structures containing ecosystems for various purposes: food for humans, waste purification systems, etc."

Wendell Berry wrote admiringly: "The bioshelter idea, then, proposes to make a household on the pattern of an ecosystem, adapted to the local landscape and climate, using local materials... Its governing principle is symbiosis: the food production system heats the house; the fish tanks raise fish, heat the greenhouse, provide irrigation water and fertilizer for the plants."

The idea that the wastes created in one part of a system provide valuable resources for another part of the system is fundamental to the design of such sustainable ecosystems.

Ocean Arks International

In 1981, Todd co-founded the non-profit Ocean Arks International (OAI).

The original idea behind Ocean Arks was to build wind-powered vessels capable of carrying ecological materials and support technologies, for use in countries throughout the developing world. Such a vision was beyond the reach of the organization.

Todd began to focus on other concerns relating to water, in particular the development of alternative approaches to conventional waste treatment. He applied ideas from aquaculture and organic agriculture to wastewater. His approach was to identify ecological pathways through which nutrients from waste could be recycled. Waste from one organism could become a food source for subsequent organisms, instead of being discarded as an unusable and toxic by-product.

The first "Solar Aquatics System" (SAS) for wastewater treatment was an experimental pilot at the Sugarbush Ski resort near Warren, Vermont, around 1986.

During the 1990s, Todd was involved in several attempts to start companies for the technologies he envisioned. The personnel, financing and technologies involved in these companies overlap in complicated and confusing ways, with each other and with Ocean Arks International. The term "Living Machines" was filed for registration as a wordmark in 1991, and was registered to Ocean Arks International in 1993 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Ecological Engineering Associates, Inc.

Ecological Engineering Associates, Inc. (EEA) was founded in Marion, Massachusetts in 1988 as a commercial venture to more effectively promote the work of Ocean Arks International.

Susan B. Peterson, previously an employee of OAI, became EEA's first president.

Co-founder John Todd preferred not to serve on its board, but was involved as an "ecological designer".

EEA designed and installed a wastewater plant to remediate septage lagoons at Harwich, Massachusetts (see below). Work began in 1988, and the system became operational in 1990.

EEA developed several other projects, using transparent water columns for treatment units in its "solar aquatic systems".

Patents for processes relating to solar aquatics were filed under the inventor names of John Todd and Barry Silverstein in 1988 and 1991, and granted to EEA.

EEA registered the trademark "Solar Aquatic" specifically for waste treatment tanks with transparent water columns.

Living Technologies Inc.

Todd also co-founded Living Technologies Inc. (LTI), an ecological design, engineering, and construction company, in Burlington, Vermont. It was incorporated as a company on October 26, 1994, in the state of Florida. Some of the personnel involved in Living Technologies, including president Michael Shaw, had connections to OAI and to a prior company called Advanced Greenhouse Systems (AGS) which had been established in 1989 by William Rapp, also in Burlington Vermont. Two patents for Ecological Fluidized Beds (EFB) were filed by John Todd and Michael Shaw in 1993 and 1995. The patents were granted to OAI in 1996 and 1997. EFBs were used in the design of what were increasingly referred to as living machines.

In 1997, Living Technologies Inc. sought a second round of funding, which it obtained from Tom Worrell. In 1998, there was considerable reorganization of the company and its board. Worrell assumed ownership of the company in 1999 and acquired the rights to the original patents for Todd's "Living Machine". As of December 2000, in an out-of-court settlement, Worrell obtained the sole right to use "Living Machine" as a proprietary term. Worrell's company went through a number of name changes and relocations. Worrell Water Technologies, LLC of Charlottesville, Virginia currently holds the registered trademark for the name Living Machine. Worrell Water Technologies has redesigned Todd's original systems and patented a number of new technologies since 2002.

John Todd Ecological Design Inc.

In 1989, Todd incorporated "John Todd Research and Design" in Falmouth, Massachusetts. It later became "John Todd Ecological Design" (JTED).

Through this company, Todd has developed his own later-generation wastewater treatment systems, under the name "Eco-machines".

As of 2014, John Todd Ecological Design registered the trademark for the term "Eco-machines".

Todd's son, Jonathan Todd, is the president of John Todd Ecological Design.