Scott Kellogg, co-author of Toolbox for Sustainable City Living, is available to offer workshops on community based sustainability skills. Workshops can be given at colleges, community organizations, or for private groups. The subject and length of the workshop can be tailored to meet your needs and interests.

View Scott Kellogg’s bio

Workshop Description: Toolbox for Sustainable Living_ With Scott Kellogg In the near future, humanity will face the challenge of having to transition into a society based on sustainable principles.  It will be necessary for us to drastically reduce our consumption of Earth’s resources, as well as having to recycle our waste products back into natural systems.  To those not familiar with its fundamentals, the task of achieving global sustainability can seem daunting and confusing.

In this workshop, sustainability expert Scott Kellogg gives attendees a basic “toolbox” of skills and knowledge useable by anyone wanting to create sustainable systems in their own communities.     Using affordable and simple designs, participants will learn how to build infrastructure for self-reliance by utilizing salvaged and recycled materials.  These ecological technologies can be applied in either urban or rural environments, and in many cases can be put to use in even an apartment spaces or dorm rooms.

Below is a list of do-it-yourself sustainable systems that are described in the workshop.

Vermicompost/compost tea:   Worms kept in small, odorless bins can convert food waste into excellent plant fertilizer.  The castings from the worms can then be used to make compost tea, a liquid culture of beneficial microbes that can be used to clean up contaminated soil.

Constructed Wetlands:  Using old bathtubs, a simulated wetland habitat can be built that can cleanse household wastewater, making it suitable for irrigating vegetables.  Participants get to construct the system and learn how microbes can assist in water purification.

Cook with an old satellite dish:  When the parabolic curve of a satellite dish is lined with a mosaic of mirror shards and aimed at the sun, it can focus the sun’s rays onto a pot of water and bring it to a boil in minutes!

Mushroom Cultivation:  Grow mushrooms on waste products including logs and coffee grounds and learn about the importance that fungi play in ecological cycles and in the degradation of toxins

Make a duckweed pond: Raise duckweed, a tiny, floating protein rich water plant in a kiddy pool.  Using only sunlight and nutrients, duckweed can double its mass every other day.  The duckweed can then be harvested and used as a food for humans, chickens, and fish, or be used as a “green manure” for building soil fertility.

Construct a small scale biogas digester:  Using a five gallon bucket, organic matter like plants, chicken manure, and dead leaves can be turned into methane gas.  The gas then can then be stored and used for cooking and heating.  Why pay money for natural gas when you can make it in your back yard?

Build a floating trash island:  Inspired by a natural phenomena, floating trash islands create habitat for plants and microorganisms to assist in purifying contaminated storm water runoff – a major urban problem.  They are made buoyant by floating debris, such as bottles and polystyrene, stuffed into a giant life-ring.  Water plants are zip-tied onto the island’s surface, and develop an extensive submerged root network that hosts water cleansing critters.

Build a rainwater Collection system:  Collect rainwater from the rooftops of buildings for use in irrigation while learning about the hydrological cycle.

Participation in any of these workshops will give attendees a better understanding of ecological processes and help to develop literacy in the environmental sciences.

Other topics covered in discussion include:

•           Soil building and asphalt removal

•           Bioremediation (cleaning contaminated soils using plants, fungi and biological processes)

•           Urban chickens and microlivestock

•           Aquaculture  ( ponds, plants, fish and algae )

•           Passive solar and bicycle windmills,

•           veggie oil biofuels,

•           Natural construction methods – strawbale, clay woodchip

•           Restoring brownfields

•           DIY air purification

•           Struggles for land and gentrification

•           Energy decline, city futures and climate justice

All these systems, plus many others, are described in much further detail in “Toolbox for Sustainable City Living – A Do-It-Ourselves Guide”  by Scott Kellogg and Stacy Pettigrew, South End Press.

Contact us for information on rates and scheduling.

Book a workshop for your college or university!

Contact Liz Cole, Evil Twin Booking Agency

liz@eviltwinbooking.com

(215) 473-0308

www.eviltwinbooking.org