| | |  | ASHRAE | Home » » Toolbox for Sustainable City Living: A do-it-Ourselves Guide | | | | | | | Description: | | 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 residing—and struggling to survive—in 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 dwellers—those who have never foraged or gardened along with those who dumpster-dive and belong to CSAs—with 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. Scott Kellogg a 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 developed out of R.U.S.T.—Radical Urban Sustainability Training—their intensive weekend seminar in urban ecological survival skills.
| | | Features: | |
• ISBN13: 9780896087804
• Condition: New
• Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
| | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Scott Kellogg | | Paperback:
| 242 pages | | Publisher:
| South End Press | | Publication Date:
| June 15, 2008 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 0896087808 | | Package Length:
| 7.9 inches | | Package Width:
| 7.8 inches | | Package Height:
| 0.7 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.8 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 15 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
10 of 25 found the following review helpful:
 Promotion of dual power anarchismJan 06, 2010
Astounding to find a book on sustainability that has a political philosophy (and I quote from the book) of "dual power anarchism: to be working for social change within today's society while at the same time building functional alternatives to oppressive dominant institutions." It seems the authors of the book want to tear down American society so that we will have to use their techniques of sustainability in order to survive the debacle. Yet they seem comfortable with receiving a $200,000 grant from the EPA (surely one of those oppressive dominant institutions) to support their collective. It's especially frustrating to find authors who think that paved roads and parking lots are bad, yet maintain homes in two different states! Do they have to utilize existing roads and institutions in order to fly/drive between them? They see parks and golf courses as "begging to be mae into edible food forests." Do you think that other people who own or use these properties might feel differently about having their properties confiscated?
This book promotes doomsday thinking extensively in order to promote the use of their ideas about how to have a sustainable life.
It is regrettable that the authors are so strongly political in promoting anarchism and collectivism, and not more positive about promoting a grassroots movement to become more self-supporting.
Overall: A very disappointing book.
 Hard-core, yet practicalJul 12, 2009
Kudos to the authors. They are trying new things, getting their hands dirty in their attempts to live sustainably in the city. It's an important topic, and while the book is not comprehensive, it covers a lot of useful information. It's well-written, and technically accurate. I am currently writing my own book on sustainability, and this is one of my most important resources.
44 of 68 found the following review helpful:
More of a soap box than a DIY bookJul 07, 2009
I was really disappointed with this book. The beginning was a pretty heavy-handed diatribe about the impending collapse of the modern world because, supposedly, we won't be able to afford to ship food to cities anymore due to rising gas prices; typical tinfoil hat fear mongering with no sources cited for their "facts". After the scare tactics, it goes on to their theory filled with a bunch of buzz words like "autonomous communities" and "radical sustainability" to make it sound more intellectual.
As for the "projects", not only are they nothing new, most of them don't even make sense for city living (why do I need a duck pond in my yard?). I also found them unhelpful as they seemed to offer a little information on a lot of different subjects but not enough to do anything with. I was really hoping for something that might make sense for people with small living quarters and limited resources but this seemed more geared toward people living in the suburbs rather than in the city. For example, there are nine pages about keeping chickens (not possible in an apartment) and one paragraph about rabbits which can be great apartment livestock.
I'm sad that this didn't turn out to be a good resource for urban dwellers wanting to attempt a more sustainable lifestyle. I guess their message is we should get out of the cities and make our own sustainable communes because we'll all starve to death even when we can drive 30 minutes to the nearest farm. At least if you're going to try to get people to swallow your political rhetoric you could reward them with something useful at the end. I'm glad I only checked it out at the library so I can take it back tomorrow.
2 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Great BookJun 20, 2009
I ordered this book and poured myself into it reading and rereading it. The authors are very creative in the ideas of this book. Additionally they presented the social impact of revitalizing areas. I had never considered the effects of rehabbing an area only for it to be taken over by those who had avoided it in the first place.
I would be very interested in reading more from the authors or anything from the Rhizome Collective.
9 of 25 found the following review helpful:
 Either use grammar properly or find a new editor.Apr 02, 2009
I'm an English teacher and this book annoys me. I've only read 10 pgs but the use of the English language is prohibiting me from getting the message. The layout is all over the place too. Perhaps I have a reject book. Here are some "choices of English" the author uses: p10 "o*f" the * represents the degree symbol written on the page.
All of these on pg xvi "po pulation", "world*s", and "doesn*t" the * here represents the letter "i" with a single quote instead of the dot in the place of an apostrophe. The words read like worldis and doesnit. Does anyone else have a copy like mine? Can I get some money back because of the author's "choices"?
| | |
|
