Almost everyone claims to be concerned about the environment these days. But what they do about it is a different matter.
For some, it's enough to use compact fluorescent bulbs. At the other extreme are stalwarts who waste nothing and live more like 19th century pioneers than citizens of the 21st century. Here is a glimpse into the lives of some of them.
Dianne Aldrich believes her Pilates-yoga studio in Monona is unlike any other in the world. It's a pre-fab cedar yurt, with an oak floor salvaged from the Madison Civic Center. On prominent display in the restroom near the front door is a composting toilet which, she believes, is the only one in the Madison area. It took a fight with local officials to gain approval to install it.
Aldrich, who is deeply involved in water conservation issues, denounces flush toilets as the ultimate water wasters. The yurt, nestled in a forest of native plants beside the home she shares with her partner and son, has no plumbing. The sink in the restroom is portable, so she carries water from her home to the yurt's sink. The combo was much cheaper than traditional plumbing. The self-contained composting toilet cost $1,400 and the sink $800. A plumbed restroom in the 560-square foot yurt would have cost at least $10,000.
After the toilet is used, with ordinary toilet paper, wood chips are sprinkled in the bowl along with a microbe mix to speed the composting process. A crank is turned several times, and composted waste winds up in the bottom box.
"Everything disappears into almost nothing," says Aldrich, pointing at light dust at the bottom of the box. "I installed this in 2009 and I still haven't had to empty it." No installation is required aside from a two-inch pipe that vents outside so there is no eau de outhouse. Finished compost is legally required to go to landfill, but Aldrich says it's actually safe enough to use in the garden.
The toilet attracts the most attention, but Aldrich has a printed list of her other sustainable practices for those who visit her 4Pillars4Health EcoSpace. Her yurt is part of the regular The Natural Step Monona tours, which are held to help other community members establish sustainable practices.
Kate Heiber-Cobb's Monona home may look like a typical suburban residence from the street. But her backyard tells another story.
It was little more than grass when she moved in. But gradually she restored it to the wetland it once was. "The previous owners used chemicals and it was a dead zone."
The little pond she dug supports 15 species of aquatic plants. She also recreated plant "guilds" — groups of species that lived synergistically before human meddling — and are then tweaked to meet modern human needs. Four years ago she founded the Madison Area Permaculture Guild, which works to create sustainable eco-systems for people and animals. Her yard is an epicenter of trial-and-error permaculture projects. "You observe and see what works and what doesn't."
In her "edible food forest" are cherry, plum, peach and apple trees, rhubarb, cranberries, elderberries, ground cherries, gooseberries and hardy kiwi. Other plants become medicines or attract pollinators such as bats, hummingbirds, butterflies and bees.
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