A Safe and Sustainable World: The Promise of Ecological Design

by Nancy Jack Todd

Book Overview

In the late sixties, as the world was waking to a need for Earth Day, a pioneering group founded a small non-profit research and education organization they called the New Alchemy Institute. Their aim was to explore the ways a safer and more sustainable world could be created. In the ensuing years, along with scientists, agriculturists, and a host of enthusiastic amateurs and friends, they set out to discover new ways that basic human needs--in...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1559637803
• ISBN13: 9781559637800
• Release Date: December 2006
• Publisher: Island Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 7.1" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

A Safe and Sustainable World

This is the book for the 21st century and these troubling economic times! Everyone who is interested in gardening, farming, food production, alternative energy, and alternative architecture should read this book. Its fantastic!

The Evolution of an Important Ecology Research Organization

Nancy Jack Todd eloquently relates the history of her and husband John Todd's New Alchemy Institute (NAI) for ecological design starting in 1969 to the present day incarnation of Ocean Arks International. This book has many photographs and drawings showing systems, buildings both at their research facilities and installations around the world and many of the dedicated people who have worked with the Todd's over the years. The original focus of their research was to develop sustainable organic food production, bioremediation, off-grid energy production, and efficient building construction methods for a virtual stand-alone closed-loop system capable of self-sufficiency without any toxic side-effects, especially, effluent. Through trial and error and much research they met their goals and became internationally recognized for the high state of efficiency their various systems achieved. NAI became a successful format and influence for many colleges to replicate on campuses all over the U.S. and abroad. Eventually, they turned their focus almost exclusively to natural effluent and pollution remediation techniques developing the "eco-machine" system that utilizes plants, micro-organisms and fish to convert sewage to re-usable water and fish for food production. The Todd's contributions to solving many of the world's toughest environmental problems and influence on ecological study cannot be understated, especially in the area of bioremediation. If every municipality, farm, and industrial site in the world were join the ranks of those who have already installed "eco-machine" type water purification systems to clean-up their toxic run-off, a huge chunk of global pollution could be eliminated. This book is a must have for all those interested bioremediation and that should be everyone- a clean environment requires it.

An Education & Inspiration

This book is written for those of us who are not architects or engineers. It illustrates how to live more sustainably on this fragile planet. The process described of incremental learning based on experimenting with small changes over time to find the most efficacious approach to sustainable building, agriculture, food production and zero waste is a lesson in itself. Learning came from doing, carefully recording results, applying lessons learned and improving results. In addition, the book describes how sustainable practices can also be economic engines for new product development and cost reduction. I've recently been in Tanzania looking at community development projects and I plan to send this book to several of the people that I met. It's the way to build and live for the future survival of our species.

What can be done and what should/will be done

Ecological design issues were in the news in the late 1960s, the height of ecological understanding; yet today it remains relatively in the background. A Safe And Sustainable World: The Promise Of Ecological Design provides a personal account of those who set out to discover more sustainable methods of shelter and energy - and comes from research and work of a couple who served as sustainable leaders of ecological design for thousands. What can be done and what should/will be done is discussed in chapters defining elements of success and ecological failure.