CNN caught up with John Todd in Vermont to talk Eco Machines, energy and building a better future...
John Todd's Eco Machines can grow foods and fuel, restore environments and treat waste.
CNN: John, can you tell us a bit about your career and what drives you?
John Todd: I really began my career as what we call a "doom watch scientist," discovering how pesticides were harming our environments. At one point I became so discouraged by what I was finding that I said, can we not take this knowledge and flip it on its head? Can we not learn what a forest or a lake knows, and convert it into technologies that in the future would feed us, provide our energy, transform our waste and even repair our damaged environments? I knew that there are efficiencies, ingenuity and symbiotic relationships in nature that are so powerful -- if we could just decode its language we could change the way we do things.
CNN: Are you a designer or an ecologist?
Todd: I'm first and foremost a biological explorer. I've looked all over the world for answers. Secondly, I'm an ecological designer, and by that I mean I attempt to work with constellations of nature to create technological forms. So I'm part engineer, part ecologist, part inventor, really.
CNN: Why are inventions like the Eco Machine so important?
Todd: As we enter an age of limits we're going to have to rely more and more on nature's wisdom to solve the problems that humans are facing. The water problem is one of the biggest of these issues.
CNN: What can your Eco Machines do?
Todd: We have created Eco Machines that generate fuels, grow foods, repair damaged environments, regulate climate in buildings and treat waste, including some very dangerous wastes.
CNN: How did you figure out the particular qualities of the organisms to create your living machines?
Todd: I've had a lifetime's experience in designing living machines to treat sewage, grow foods, generate fuels, repair damaged environments and regulate climates in buildings.
Basically they're driven by sunlight. Higher plants provide a lot of the surface area -- via their roots -- for the beneficial organisms. They work in much the same way that a marsh or a forest works. We substitute nature's wisdom for heavy duty engineering, chemicals and massive amounts of energy.
CNN: What potential do you think Eco Machines hold?
Todd: Our vision is to use Eco Machines to allow the world to shift to a more scarce petroleum era, to substitute long-distance transport of materials and energy. It has tremendous possibilities for transitioning to a post-petroleum era. It's perhaps one of the least-valued strategies to us in the future.
CNN: How do Eco Machines compare to traditional treatment works in terms of energy consumption?
Todd: The living machines can be designed to use only solar energy. If you have a very small footprint, we can pump air into the tanks with electrical blowers to substitute for space -- that's the trade-off. The blowers are several horsepower, but it's far less than conventional technology. But increasingly we're learning to do more with less as we learn about nature's capabilities. For example, one could calculate a facility's electrical needs and install a windmill.
CNN: To what level do you think your vision will be accepted?
Todd: Whether we're working in Vermont, China or the Caribbean, we're finding that once people become familiar with this approach, they get really turned on. Most of the activity is happening in resorts that want to become green and developers who want to change, whether we're talking about apartments in London, England or a resort in Hawaii.
CNN: What is the craziest idea you've ever had?
Todd: I've had a lot of crazy ideas! Right now, I'd like to be able to clean up the canals of Venice and Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans; I want to build an ocean ark, a wind- and solar electric-powered ship that doesn't pollute and takes passengers between continents; and I'm very anxious to get involved in large scale land restoration. I'm actually getting started doing that.
CNN: What do you hope things will look like 20 years from now?
Todd: I would like to go to any city and find that the buildings were the scaffolding for all kinds of living materials, which would be purifying the air and even providing foods for people. It would be very exciting; it would be very beautiful. The landscapes of the future would be very diverse -- trees, livestock, animals, crops, wild areas, all woven together. Most foods could be grown locally, so that things that we trade are things we really revere, like good wines, fabulous coffee or incredible olive oil, that kind of thing.
CNN: Do you think we can build a better future for the human race?
Todd: If we redesigned our infrastructures in the broadest sense through ecological design we could reduce the negative human footprint on the planet by about 90% and still have thriving civilizations. We know we can do it, it's just getting from here to there. That's going to be the greatest challenge of the 21st century. E-mail to a friend