Toolbox for Sustainable City Living: A do-it-Ourselves Guide

256 Pages·2008·15.16 MB·English

by  Scott Kellogg, Stacy Pettigrew

ADVANCE 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 Ciry Living should be on the shelves

of all city dwellers," Derrick Jensen, author 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 thoug"hts to push the conversation forward. If you care about

low income urb"an people and their/ouf future you are going to read this

book." Renee Toil-DuBOis, Eagle Eye Institute

"The Rhizome Collective is a force that gets stuff done... it's a surprisingly

effective model for connecting people with dreams to the resources they

need." Austin Chronicle

"They had a-nially 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,H Amber Perry, Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA)

"One group distinguishing themselves as a major environmental force is

the Rhizome Collective." The Green Building Program Newsletter

'This is so cool. I can't wait to get home and try it myself," Anonymous,

overheard at one of the R.U.S.T. workshops
•

TOOLBOX FOR

SUSTAINABLE CITY LIVING
SCOTT KELLOGG AND STACY PETTiGREW

ILLUSTRATIONS BY JUAN MARTINEZ

TOOLBOX FOR

SUSTAINABLE CITY LIVING

(A DO-iT-OU RSELVES GU iDE)

SOUTH END PRESS CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
Copyright () 2008 by Scott Kellogg

Anv p roperl� footnoted

and Stacy Pettigrew

quotation of up to 500 sequen�al ... ordl may be used

wit hout permislion, as Icng as the total number of words quoted do�s not
exceetl 2,000. fo, longe' �uotiti(mS or for a greater numm., 01 total words

please wrote to South I'nd Pr�IS for permission

Dosco....nted bulk qu�"tities of this book Me available lor organizing.
educational. or fundr al s.ng purposes. Plea,e cont�ct South End Press for more

information.

Cover design by Beol3mm ShaV�in
Cover illustr�tlO!' bV Juan Martinez Jnd Beth Ferguson

Interior des.gn by AleHnder Dwinell. South End p�s colleCtive

PriMed In Canada by un .on ·abor on recycled paper

library of Congress Cat"alogins· in ·PublicatlOn Data

KelloB&, Scort T.

Toolbox/or sustainable city lIVing . a dO·it-ourselves guide' Scott Kellogg and

Stacy Perug,ew , illu", ations by Juan Ma,tllle,

p em.

"Mc>st of th e 'y,tem, deScribed ore ones th�t we have b�11t and experirr.ented

with O�e, the past eight ye�rs at the Rh"ome Collective (formed in 20001 •."

Au,�n. Texas"--IMrod

Includes bibliographIcal reiefenCeS and index.

ISBN 978-0-89608-780-4 (pbk

. �Ik paper)

I. SuStamable Iiv;nB-·Handbooh, manuals, etc. 2. Organ.c Iivlng··H�ndbooks,
manuals. etc 3. Cc>n,ervation of natural reSOurces·· Handbooks, manuals. etc.

4 Self-rehant living ·Handbooks, manuals. etc. 5 Urban ecology·-Handboo;".

manuals, etc. I. Pettigrew, Stacy. II. Title. III. T itle: Sustainable city IivmB' a do­

iI-ourSelves guide

Gf78.K4S 2008

640--11(22

200801173B

12 11 10 09 08

South End PrfSI

lead.""" ite.revolt.

7 Brookline Street III

Cambr idge. MA02139

www.Southendpress.orll

1 23456789
CONTENTS

Introduction

FOOD

"

1

Mlcrolive�tock (4) Tree Crops and fdible Forests (14) Mushroom Log

Cultivation (171 Aquaculture (21) Depave the Planet (47) Siosnellers

(50) Insect Culture (55) Putting It All Together (60)

WATER

61

Rainwater Coliecl1on (64) Code, and lOlling (72) Water Purincatiorl

(75) Barrels, Bunt:holes, & Bulkheads (80) Floatlllg Trash Islands (84)

Putting ItAl1 Together (8S)

WASTE

91

Wastewater Recycling ,94) CompOS!lng (111) Verm.eompostmg (118)­

Recyciir'lg Hum�n Wastes (121) Putting ItAll Together lUI)

ENERGY

SiOfuels "(139) BIO(har Jnd Gasification (151)

13J

Bioga5 and.JMthane

Generilnon (153) Wind Power (160) Passive Solar (164) Roc�et Stoves

(173) Puttlng It All Togt'lher (176)

BIOREMEDIATION

Pollutants

(183)

(181)

Bactenal

Phytoremediation

Comong up

Remediation

(1gS)

with

{184)

Compost

a Remediation

179

Str�tegy

Mycoremedl�tion

81oremediatlOrl (201)

(191)

Air

Purification (202) Putting It All Together (204) Hurricane Katrma

A Case Study in Applied Btoremediation (205) Acce,s to land (206)

Susta,nability and Gentrifi(ation 1210)

CONCLUSION

213
Resources and Note�

216

Glossary 126
Indc� 231
IllustratIOn & Photo Credits '"
About the Authors 143
AbOut South End Press '"

•

•
ACKNOWLEDGEM ENTS

We would like to thank our parents-Bill and Karen

Pettigrew and Norm and Cind.y Ke llogg-whose

numerous hours of babysitting. made this book

possible; Juan Martinez, Beth Ferguson, and David

BaileY,John DolleyJr. for their drawings and woodcuts;

Starhawk and Lisa Fithian for their photographs; leah
Penniman, Javid Afzali, Richard Linel. and Lauren

Ross for their comments; Aunt Barbara for typing

Stacy's first stories; our grandparents; and everyone

involved with the Rhizome ColleCtive and the Albany
-
Free School Community.

This book is dedicated to

Eleanor Elodea Kellogg.

•

•
INTRODUCTION

In the coming decades, humanity will be faced with an enormous challenge-to

survive the implosion of a society that has overextended its natural limitations

in every capacity. The converging crises of climate change, energy depletion, and

environmental degradation seriously threaten our speciesi surv.ival. Despite the

growing awareness of the severity of these threats, the mechanisms that drive them

are well in motion and are terribly difficult to stop.

The future is unknown. Climate models and oil consumption projections can be

analyzed. but precise details of what and when changes will occur cannot be
completely pred icted. What is certain, however, is that if our current trajectory remains

unchanged devastating collapse is unavoidable. A massive social transformation is

needed. Driven by the current economic modelfs need' for perpetual growth, todayrs
society is marked by unrelenting consumption and an increasing-disparity between

rich and poor. This path has no future. In order to survive, we must become a culture

that consumes drastically1ewer resources and is strongly rooted" in the principles of

sustainability, egalitarianism, and cooperation.

Accomplishing this tr.aosition will be no easy task. To be successful a diversity of
tactics will need to be employed on every level of society. The largest and most

important changes will take place on a grassroots level. While people acting on the

grassroots are nof individually responsible for the looming crises� the scale and depth

of the changes necessary must be based and emerge from the grassroots. One critical

component of this transition is the design of ecologicaJly sustainable, community­

based infrastructure. It is this component that this book addresses. This manual is a

toolbox of skills, technologies, tactics, and information to giv� people access to, and

control over, lifers necessities:

food, water, energy, and waste management.

WHAT IS S USTA I NABLE?

When first coined, the word

sustainabilitycaptured a very powerful concept. Its many

definitions essentially boil down to the idea of living in such a way that the resources

available today will continue to be available for an indefinite number of future

INTRODUCTION I ..
generations. Sadly, the term has been almost completely co-opted by corporations,

governments, and international financial institutions.

For example, a mainstream sustainable development program might propose insta�lin9

a series of solar panels in a rural village. But solar panels only have about a 25-year life

span, provided theyire not damaged sooner, and after this period the panels are useless.

Typically these projects don it consider whether or not the village will have the technical

expertise, access to tools or manufacturing, or money necessary to repair or replace

the panels. Without these resources the village finds itself in a position of dependency.

When the panels fail they must wait for someone to donate another set. These types of

projects maintain a colonial traj�_ctory.

Sustainable development has joined the lexicon of the International Monetary Fund

(lMF), the World Bank, and the United Nations and is often used in their public

relations campaigns as a euphemism for neoliberal economic development. The only

sustainability created by a program which forces people to abandon their traditional

means of sustenance in favor of exclusively raising a single cash crop for export is

the ability of wealthier nations to sustain their monopolies of power.

The ideologies of _narural capitalism and green consumerism dilute the concept

of sustainability even further. The mainstream sustainability mov..ement puts the

emphasis on green consumerism6the idea that environmental devastation can be

avoided simply through changes in consumer spending habits. This has led to

businesses from large retail stores to the petroleum industry attempting to sell

themselves and their products as being green. As the genuine sustainability of many of

these products is dubious, the use of green, sustainable, and environmentally friendly

as marketing terms has only further devalued the concept of sustainability.

Green consumerism encourages consumption of a different variety. It does nothing

to challenge the patterns of over-consumption and excess that have created the
environmental crisis. Green consumerism only reinforces the destructive capitalist

paradigm while giving people a dangerously false sense that real change is being
made. Capitalism, natural or not, requires infinite expansion and consumption of

material resources. In a world that is fragile and finite, such a system is inherently

xii I TOOLBOX FOR SUSTAINABLE CITY LIVING