Urban Sustainability

A while ago, I mentioned our ever popular "Green Living" section, a relatively new, but important addition to Crazy Wisdom's subject base. From basic books on the various ways to conserve energy, to instruction manuals on building straw bale houses, the section offers a diverse array of titles reflecting on the most serious issue facing our planet. Most of these titles, while appealing to a wider audience, contain ideas and suggestions that are not always feasible to implement in a city. Which is why I'm excited to highlight a couple of great titles that deal specifically with sustainability for city dwellers.

The first, The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-Sufficient Living in the Heart of the City, is a title in the Process Self-Reliance Series ($16.95), a series dedicated to educating urbanites on making the right choices to live sustainably and self-sufficiently. Written by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen, a couple who live in the heart of Los Angeles, The Urban Homestead is full of city-friendly/earth-friendly projects. Key focuses include gardening, home economics, and water and power conservation. Also included in this handy, attractive book are plenty of bright green illustrations and tips to make projects both easy and fun.

Toolbox for Sustainable City Living, by Scott Kellogg and Stacy Pettigrew, is another great resource (South End Press, $16). The authors are two of the founders of the Rhizome Collective, a group in Austin, Texas, who transformed an abandoned warehouse into a sustainability training center. Full of intricately drawn illustrations and photographs, this book may not offer as many projects as The Urban Homestead, but the projects included are much more elaborate and detailed. Chapters are broken down as follows: Food, Water, Waste, Energy, Bioremediation.

Be sure to come in and check out these two invaluable guides to helping the planet, right here in the city!