| Toolbox for Sustainable City Living |
| Written by Dante Dominick | |
 Resourceful how-to book offers examples of sustainability in action.It should be pretty clear by now that “going green” is not a fad. Some people are further along than others in the shift toward sustainable living, but we know for certain that, far from going away, it is something we must collectively get better at. Even if—by some remarkable feat of obstinate denial—you don’t believe global warming is real, the fact still remains that earth’s population is soaring and our resources needed to survive are dwindling. It’s pretty basic to see where that will lead. These can seem fairly gloom and doom realities, until you recognize that much of what we consider as “needed to survive” is far from a necessity, and the methods we utilize to get what is necessary are often needlessly wasteful.
 Bicycle windmill at Rhizome Collective Since 2000 the Rhizome Collective has been a living, breathing work-in-progress that puts these practices into motion, giving the general public the opportunity to come see them first hand. Many of the solutions offered in Toolbox were originated at Rhizome, and it is here that Kellogg began offering his R.U.S.T. workshops: Radical Urban Sustainability Training. Essentially, Kellogg distills the teachings of permaculture into the aspects more relevant to city living. The book became a way to consolidate further, by packing many of the teachings into a handy, do-it-ourselves reference guide, one that can be referred back to as needed.  Constructed wetlands filter wastewater Kellogg and Pettigrew made a wise decision to spread these levels throughout the book (as opposed to dividing all the easy stuff first, and progressing to the harder later). This keeps the reader reading, and therefore digesting some of the more dedicated tactics instead of just never getting to those chapters. And there’s something reassuring in learning, in case all hell does break loose, there are proven ways to grow, raise, and cook your own food without manufactured goods. In that regard, it seems a more useful reference book to keep on your shelf than, say, a thesaurus. But an important tenet to their philosophy is we can’t let the reassurance that solutions are possible lull us into a sense of false complacency. “Failure is a great teacher,” the pair writes. They point out that many of the designs and methods explained in the book were refined by trial and error. Some attempts resulted in failures. But eventually, a solution was found. They continue, explaining that “today [we] have the luxury of making mistakes…in the future, [our] surplus safety net may be unavailable, leaving less freedom to experiment. Now is the time to make errors and learn from them.” So hey, it looks like it’s time to take a stab at composting after all. Waiting isn’t doing yourself any favors. Toolbox for Sustainable City Living: A Do-It-Ourselves Guide is available online here for $16 (plus $4 shipping). It is also available at many local bookstores (though buying directly is always better for the authors). In addition to the free Feb 18 presentation, Rhizome Collective will host a one-day R.U.S.T. hands-on training workshops on March 7 and March 14. The courses will run from 9am-5pm (lunch is provided) and the fee is $100. (Register here.)  
Left image: Worm composting (vermicomposting). "A common question I get from folks living in cities is: 'What is the easiest thing I can do?'" Kellogg says. "I typically recommend having a worm box as the simplest thing." A worm box can be kept under your kitchen sink (it is odor-free). Worms are fed table scraps and they provide nutrient-rich compost for soil, indoor plants, or compost tea.
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