Kitchen Table Sustainability: Practical Recipes for Community Engagement with Sustainability

Kitchen Table Sustainability offers a unique view of sustainability through the lens of community engagement. It takes sustainability out of the ivory towers of universities, government departments and planners to the kitchen tables of the world.

This practical guide distils decades of wisdom from community planning, engagement and sustainability practice internationally into a user-friendly and engaging book that is both inspirational and packed with hands-on tools. The core of the book is a bottom-up approach to participatory community engagement and development, referred to as EATING, that consists of six components: Education, Action, Trust, Inclusion, Nourishment and Governance.

Wendy Sarkissian holds a PhD in environmental ethics, has taught in schools of planning, landscape architecture and architecture and has co-authored a number of award-winning books. As a consultant focusing on community engagement, she has pioneered innovative planning and development approaches in a variety of contexts, earning her forty professional awards.

Steph Vajda has over ten years experience in environmental and social justice advocacy at local community and national levels and has worked as a social planner in Brisbane since 2001. He has a particular interest in the power dynamics of participation, seeking ways to involve young and marginalised people in meaningful processes in their communities.

Nancy Hofer holds a Master's degree from the School of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia, and has a background in ecology and natural resource conservation. This book addresses her two main professional interests: ecology and planning.