Toolbox For Sustainable City Living: A Do-It-Ourselves Guide

http://www.southendpress.org/2007/items/87804

Scott Kellogg and Stacy Pettigrew

The tools you need to create self-sufficient, ecologically sustainable cities

“A surprisingly effective model for connecting people with dreams to the resources they need.” ­Austin Chronicle

With more than half the world’s population now residing­and struggling to survive­in cities, we can no longer afford to think of sustainability as something that applies only to forests and fields. We need sustainable living right where so many of us are: in urban neighborhoods. But how do we do it?

That’s where Toolbox for Sustainable City Living comes in. In 2000 the dynamic Rhizome Collective transformed an abandoned warehouse in Austin, Texas, into a sustainability training center. Here, with their first book, Scott and Stacy, two of Rhizome’s founders, provide city dwellers­those who have never foraged or gardened along with those who dumpster-dive and belong to CSAs­with step-by- step instructions for producing our own food, collecting water, managing waste, reclaiming land, and generating energy.

With vibrant illustrations created by Juan Martinez of the Beehive Collective and descriptive text based on years of experimentation, Stacy and Scott explain how to build and grow with cheap, salvaged, and recycled materials. More than a how-to manual, Toolbox is packed with accessible and relevant tools to help move our communities from envisioning a sustainable future toward living it.


Pages: 256
Edition: illustrated
ISBN: 978-0-89608-780-4
Format: paperback original
Release Date: 2008-07-01

[]   Purchase for $16.00



When people envision food production or toxic cleanups, the last setting most likely imagine is New York City. But with more than half the world’s population now residing­and struggling to survive­in cities, we can no longer afford to think of sustainability as something that applies only to forests and fields. We need sustainable living right where so many of us are: in urban neighborhoods. But how do we do it?

That’s where this guide comes in. Seven years ago, the Rhizome Collective transformed an abandoned Austin, Texas, warehouse into a sustainability training center. Here, with their first book, two of Rhizome’s founders provide step-by-step instructions for city dwellers­those who have never foraged or gardened along with those who have done dumpster-diving and CSAs­with directions for producing our own food, collecting water, managing waste, reclaiming land, and generating energy.

With vibrant illustrations created by a member of the Beehive Collective and descriptive text based on years of experimentation, Stacy and Scott explain how to build and grow with cheap, salvaged, and recycled materials, making the Guide an accessible and relevant tool for all members of the community. This manual enables us to move from envisioning a future with resources for all to living it.

Stacy Pettigrew and Scott Kellogg are part of the Rhizome Collective, an educational and activist organization based in Austin, Texas. Its members recently received a $200,000 brownfield cleanup grant from the EPA, which they're using to turn a 10-acre dump into an ecological justice park. The bioremediation techniques they developed are being used to remove toxins deposited by the waters of Hurricane Katrina.
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Interview

Sonali Kolkatar of Uprising Radio, interviewed Scott Kellogg and Stacy Pettigrew on radical sustainability on May 27, 2008. You can access the interview on more information http://www.southendpress.org/2007/items/87804



For more information about Scott Kellogg & Stacy Pettigrew please visit http://www.radicalsustainability.org

For more information about R.U.S.T. and the Rhizome collective please visit http://www.rhizomecollective.org




Praise

"This important manual will become even more necessary as people increasingly recognize the end of the age of oil-and increasingly relocalize. Toolbox for Sustainable City Living should be on the shelves of all city dwellers."
Derrick Jensen, author of Endgame

"These simple, yet powerful steps can transform your life and your concept of sustainability. Radical sustainability--intimately connected to urban living and urban people doing for themselves--is critically important. This book provides us with relevant tools to change what we do and valuable thoughts to push the conversation forward. If you care about low income urban people and their/our future you are going to read this book."
Renée Toll-DuBois, Eagle Eye Institute

And for the Rhizome Collective

"The Rhizome Collective is a force that gets stuff done...a surprisingly effective model for connecting people with dreams to the resources they need."
Austin Chronicle

"They had a really great idea of where they're going with the site. It was so sustainable, and the practices they're using are very innovative. We didn't see them anywhere else."
Amber Perry, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

"One group distinguishing themselves as a major environmental force is the Rhizome Collective."
The Green Building Program Newsletter


Scott Kellogg and Stacy Pettigrew are co-founders of the Rhizome Collective, an educational and activist organization based in Austin, Texas, that recently received a $200,000 grant from the EPA to clean up a 10-acre brownfield that they are transforming into an ecological justice park. Toolbox for Sustainable City Living developed out of R.U.S.T.­Radical Urban Sustainability Training­their intensive weekend seminar in urban ecological survival skills. 






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