Sustainable Solar-Dynamic Bio-Benign Design:
Offering Better Ways to Live, at Less Cost
Today and Tomorrow, Anywhere on Earth


Ladybug


Ladybug
Solviva Home Page  |  Solviva Book  |  Reviews & Comments
Important Quotes  | 
Designs & Consulting
  Wastewater  | Greyburg or Greendale, and other Proposals
Book 2 - Choosing for Our Lives  |  Yarn & Sweaters
  Recommended Reading & Documentaries

Ladybug


Ladybug

"In Our Every Deliberation, We Must Consider the Impact of Our Decisions
on the next Seven Generations"

From the Great Law of the Iroquois Nation

Welcome to the Solviva Website

Solviva Book      Green Light Book

>>>>>>> First of all, here are Anna's two books: "SOLVIVA", published in 1998, and now in it's 3rd printing, and "GREEN LIGHT", just published early 2014. Both books can now be ordered on Amazon by clicking on the thumbnails above.


Within this website you will find information that proves that it is possible for us to live in ways that are far better than the normal modern standards today. Less polluting ... less wasteful ... less costly ... less risky --- as well as more secure ... more dependable ... more sustainable ... more conducive to local and global health, peace and prosperity.

Most people find such a concept difficult to imagine, as it certainly runs contrary to frequent news about ever escalating energy consumption and decreasing resources, and rising levels of harmful substances in our atmosphere and our water.

However, my information is solidly based on more than 20 years of personal experience.
My experience has provided powerful evidence that indicates that we do indeed, today, have technologies and methods available that are capable of heating and cooling our buildings, generating electricity, providing food and transportation, and managing wastewater and solid wastes, in ways that reduce pollution and depletion of resources by 80% or more. Furthermore, it proves that this can be done in ways that reduce the cost of living, and improve security, health and comfort.

These methods are primarily powered by the energy that radiates from our sun, and they function in accordance, in compliance, with the laws of Nature. Therefore I call them Solar-Dynamic and Bio-Benign. These methods all work in a mutually beneficial collaboration, in circular loops, with optimum recycling of every aspect of every process. Thus the waste product of one process becomes the energy supply or food for another process, and back again. For instance, the waste products from meat and dairy production - manure, co2, heat - becomes the feedstock for the production of vegetables, herbs and flowers, and, in turn, the waste products from that production - weeds and excess - become food for the animals.
This is in stark contrast to the prevailing modern agriculture, where co2, methane and other gasses escape to pollute our atmosphere, the heat is wasted, and the manure is left to pollute our drinkingwater and destroy our estuaries and fishing grounds, and where fertilizer and feed are derived from polluting processes that result in great harm to our health, our soil, our water supplies, and our environment.

Variations of solar-dynamic bio-benign processes have been proven around the world to be highly productive and economical. Compared to today's prevailing methods, they are simple, and their success and benefit is self-evident.
It is like the story of the Emperor's New Clothes: any child can understand.

The obvious question that any caring, intelligent person must ask is: "If such methods are possible and practical, why are they not the norm everywhere?"
The answer to this question is perhaps complex, but I believe the most important reason is simple: money. Money invested in what Amory Lovins has dubbed "Hard Path" methods makes huge profits, and some of those profits are used to lobby politicians to enact regulations that benefit the puveyors of those Hard Path methods, and also to persuade us, the People, that we would indeed "freeze and starve in the dark" if we reduced our reliance on these methods, and access to the resources that power them.
Thus we, the People, are pawns in a game that we know in our hearts is not sustainable.

Someone said: "If we are to realize the American Dream, we must first wake up." To be sure, there are many who are working with all their might to change the system, but there are far too many who are chosing to remain ignorant and uninvolved, thus, by default, helping to perpetuate "Business-as-usual". In a democracy we are imbued with the power to change what we know is wrong. We have the responsibility to learn about issues that concern us all, and then to vote and act in ways that protect the wellbeing of all, for now and for the coming generations.

The purpose of this website is to help you to learn more about issues that concern our very survival. I invite you to explore throughout the various sections of this website, and to consider the evidence and the possibilites, and then to do what you feel is right.
Currently, the issue that is most pressing for me, and for many others, is about wastewater. I therefore recommend that you first click on Wastewater, and the various sub-sections therein. This will deepen your understanding of the serious problems that result from septic systems that are built in accordance with current regulations. And you will learn about innovative septic systems that cause far less pollution and destruction, and are far less costly. Then you will learn how our government is obstructing the development and use of these innovative systems. This is indeed a frightening example of how Bureaucracy and Big Business can keep us trapped in "Hard Path" methods, and prevent us from living with sustainable "Soft Path" methods.
If you are one of the many being ordered by your Board of Health/DEP to upgrade your current septic system, you need to consider the fact that a septic system upgraded in accordance with current regulations will in most cases release 4-5 times more nitrogen into the groundwater (thus polluting drinkingwater and ponds) than the pre-existing system, for many years to come. This is a fact that is shocking to most people, but it is true. Then you will need to consider whether or not you are willing to submit to such foolish and irresponsible regulations. Perhaps you will instead do what I did and am still doing, namely to stand up for the right to do what is good.


On behalf of coming generations, I urge you to not be discouraged,
and to keep up the Good Work.
Together we CAN
do what needs to be done.

May your every efforts to live more sustainably be rewarded with joy and success.

To contact Anna Edey or to purchase the SOLVIVA book or designs:
Solviva, Trailblazer Press:
18 Solviva Road, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568
Tel: (508) 693-3341 - - Cell phone: 9774) 563-0898 - - Fax: (508) 693-2228
e-mail: solviva@vineyard.net

website: www.solviva.com - - also - - new blog/website: www.solvivagreenlight.com

 

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The Solviva Mission Statement

The purpose of the Solviva work is
to Learn the Art of Living in Harmony with Life on Earth.

Thus, the purpose of the Solviva work is to develop designs and methods capable of providing for our basic needs (heating, cooling, electricity, food, transportation, and management of wastewater and solid waste)
in ways that reduce pollution and depletion of resources by 80% or more,
that are sustainable for 7 x 7 generations and beyond,
and that improve security and justice, the economy and the quality of life,
in urban and rural locations anywhere on Earth.

The Solviva work has been manifested since 1977 at the Solviva home and farm on the island of Martha's Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts. It got its start when Anna Edey discovered that there are better ways to manage wastewater than to let it leach into the groundwater and our drinking water, the way standard septic systems do. Specifically, she discovered that urine is a great fertilizer for plants. Thus, various Solviva wastewater filter system designs evolved, resulting in 80-90% reduction of nitrogen release into the groundwater (as confirmed by certified labs), great savings, and happy trees, shrubs and flowers. Yes! Urine Power! You're in charge! You're in control! And - with a slight Swedish accent: Peace-on Earth!

In 1980 Anna designed and built the Solviva Solargreen Home with the following goals:
1) to maximize the use of solar power in order to minimize use of any other energy source,
2) to manage wastewater without releasing nitrogen or toxins into the groundwater, and
3) to produce an abundance of vegetables inside all through the winter.
Furthermore, the goal was that the house must be beautiful, convenient and low cost to build and operate, and that the solar must not cause overheating in the summer. As you can read in Solviva book, in the chapter called "A Visit to Solviva", the results exceeded highest hopes. The news spread fast about the year-round sweet, juicy tomatoes dangling from the ceiling on 30-foot vines, and the warmth and comfort inside even on a blustery cold winter day (without a fire in the wood stove).

Inspired by the success of the Solviva home, Anna designed and built the 3000 square foot Solviva Solar Greenhouse in 1983, with the goal of producing high yields of high quality organic food year-round, with no backup heat and no cooling fans. The heating would be primarily solar, with additional heat provided by little resident heaters: chickens and rabbits. Again, the Solviva designs exceeded the highest hopes, and the news spread far and wide. People came from as far away as Europe and Japan to see and to learn.

In 1995, Anna embarked upon the difficult and frustrating work of attepting to get governmental approval for the Solviva Biocarbon Wastewater Filter Systems. This struggle is still ongoing, and will perhaps develop into a class action lawsuit against Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. DEP regulations currently require people to install highly polluting and expensive septic and sewage systems. New regulations need to be enacted that encourage, instead of discourage, the use of far less polluting septic system.

In 1998, Anna and Trailblazer Press published the book Solviva, with the intriguing subtitle: "How to Grow $500,000 on One Acre - and Peace on Earth". Some of the chapters and photographs from this book can be seen on this web site.

People ask: What is the meaning of the name "Solviva"?

In October 1979, on my way to visit Findhorn, an intentional community in northern Scotland, I was sitting in deep meditation 7 miles above the Atlantic Ocean, in a jet plane flying from Boston to London, when suddenly a voice, loud and clear, proclaimed: "SOLVIVA!"
I looked around to see who had uttered this lovely-sounding word, but saw only passengers who were snoozing, reading or talking quietly to each other.
The voice had come from … within? … from on high?…from where? This was the first of three times in my life that I have heard a distinct voice.

I recalled that "Solviva" is the Swedish name for the flower Cowslip, and it dawned on me that the name means "Sun Life". Ah…yes!…I had already come to believe that in order for us humans to be able continue to sustain our lives here on Earth we must learn to use the daily incoming power of the Sun, instead of living entirely off the capital of the stored fossil solar power: oil, gas and coal, or the hideously dangerous and expensive nuclear power. Thus, the previous year, I had started to devote my life to finding and developing ways to live as much as possible with solar power, for heating my home and producing electricity. Upon hearing the commanding voice say "SOLVIVA!" I knew that this would be the name of my work.
I also soon found out that in the Swedish Flower Language, the flower SOLVIVA means: "Hoppas! Det skall till slut bli som vi onskar", which means: "Hope! It will finally become as we wish". How very appropriate.
Solviva!

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How to contact Anna Edey, Solviva, Trailblazer Press:
18 Solviva Road, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568
Tel: (508) 693-3341- - Cell phone: (774) 563-0898 - - Fax: (508) 693-2228
e-mail: solviva@vineyard.net, website: www.solviva.com

AND, as of January 2014, at Blog/Website: www.solvivagreenlight.com