Sustainable Cities

Dickson D. Despommier proposes a visionary yet achievable plan for creating a new, self-sustaining urban landscape. He argues that we can find solutions through the concept of biomimicry: emulating successful strategies found in nature. A better city is possible if we heed the lessons that forests and trees teach about how to store carbon, grow food, collect rainwater, and convert sunlight into energy.

In The 15-Minute City: A Solution to Saving Our Time and Our Planet, Carlos Moreno delivers an exciting and insightful discussion of the deceptively simple and revolutionary idea that everyday destinations like schools, stores, and offices should only be a short walk or bike ride away from home. This book tells the story of an idea that spread from city to city, describing a new way of looking at living that addresses many of the most intractable challenges of our time.

Public Gardens and Livable Cities uses a prescriptive approach to synthesize a range of public, private, and nonprofit initiatives from municipalities throughout the country. In doing so, the authors examine the initiatives from a practical perspective to identify how they were implemented, their sustainability, the obstacles they encountered, the impact of the initiatives on their populations, and how they dealt with the communities' underlying social problems.

In today's fast-paced world, where concrete jungles dominate the landscape, the idea of growing your own food may seem like a distant dream. However, sustainable urban farming is changing the game and offering a solution to the challenges faced by city dwellers. In this subchapter, we will explore the importance of sustainable urban farming and its significance for gardeners, whether they are engaged in urban gardening, balcony gardening for apartment dwellers, container gardening for limited spaces, indoor gardening for urban homes and offices, or sustainable urban farming for self-sufficiency.

The urban centers are becoming more and more dangerous with a steady increase of homeless tent cities littered by discarded junky drug paraphernalia. Those living, of necessity, in these homeless encampments are themselves in an ever-dangerous environment, holding onto every scrap of earthly possession, housed in stolen shopping carts, to not have these last vestiges of worldly belongings being stolen by others, leaving them even more destitute. The political policies of the defunding of police have limited those who remain in law enforcement.

Do you have a small backyard space that is brimming with potential? Have you always wanted to grow your own food and save up money in the process? Are you looking to take a simpler, more self-sufficient path in life? You’re in luck! If you’re looking to create a highly productive, sustainable space that provides homegrown fruits, vegetables, honey, eggs, milk, and meat...then Sustainable Backyard Homesteading for Beginners by D.G. Smith is for you!

Finally, a book that simplifies the beginning skills of urban homesteading and provides easy lessons for those ready to be more self-sufficient. We are all different and live in different situations. This book will get you started in ways you might not have thought of, no matter where you are.

In Farm the City, Michael Ableman, the “Spartacus of Sustainable Food Activism”, offers a guide to setting up and running a successful urban farm, derived from the success of Sole Food Street Farms, one of the largest urban agriculture enterprises in North America. Sole Food Street Farms spans four acres of land in Vancouver, produces 25 tons of food annually, provides meaningful work for dozens of disadvantaged people, and has improved the surrounding community in countless ways.