This weekend is the Sustainable Backyard Tour. Terry Winklemann organized the tour several years ago to help folks in St. Louis learn about sustainability practices from their neighbors. Sustainability is often about making small choices in our daily lives and implementing them on the ground, where we live.

Backyard Garden

I grow about a quarter of what I eat right here on a small urban lot. I also have native plants and eco-restoration projects. I have been a host on the tour for a few years. This year, I am not hosting, but I will be joining friends in the Dogtown Ecovillage to help them host at their house. They have food and herb gardens and native gardens. They also have a passive solar house. They made the commitment to build it from scratch. It is super energy efficient and also has solar panels and a solar water heater.

Generally a few hundred people show up at each site on the tour, providing an opportunity to share what we are doing for sustainability and also to learn from others what they are doing. Grassroots. Community-building. Simplicity. Positive. Dynamic. This is a project that is so simple and sustainable that it is a delight to participate.

Sustainability is a new frontier of mission. We are working to build a more sustainable world and help others to do so. This not only enhances respect for the planet and all God’s creation, it also helps the poorest and weakest among us, who are those most adversely impacted by environmental degradation.

There are so many things we can do to build a better world. Each of us can do something small and all together, it makes a difference in our common home.