A four-bedroom, four bath dormitory at the University of Miami is being retrofitted for autonomous net-zero water operation, including construction of a net-zero treatment facility, cistern rainwater collection, and separate city water supply to the rooms for drinking and incidental cooking. Once running, all wastewater from showers, toilets, sinks, and laundry will go to the treatment system, for return to the same fixtures.

• Read a journal article about this project

In 1991, The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) announced its Healthy Housing Design Competition to promote environmentally responsible housing in Canada. Ten builder led teams were chosen to build pilot projects to showcase their innovative ideas. CMHC's Healthy House in Toronto was one of the winners of the competition.

• Read about the innovative water and wastewater systems used in the Toronto healthy house

Columbia University has designed and built a plant in Ghana that is converting fecal sludge to fuels (biogas and biodiesel) with possible byproducts of chemicals such as methane, methanol and fertilizer. The "off the grid," self-sustaining plant processes about 5,000 liters of fecal sludge per day.

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