1. Improving Your Resilience Using Zones
Sustainable Living in the Suburbs

2. What we will be talking about
What is resilience?
Resilient to what?
How do we become more resilient?
Permaculture zones
The zones of our lives –
Food, water, waste, energy, finances, consumption, shelter, services
What next?
What we will be talking about
Sustainable Living in the Suburbs

3. Sustainable Living in the Suburbs
“Resilience refers to the ability of a system, from individual people to whole economies, to hold together and maintain their ability to function in the face of shocks from the outside” – Rob Hopkins (from The Transition Handbook).
What is Resilience?
Sustainable Living in the Suburbs

4. Sustainable Living in the Suburbs
Natural
Man Made
Flood
Bushfires
Storms
Damaging wind
Earthquake
Tropical cyclone
Heat wave
Tsunami
Unemployment
Economic collapse
War
Fuel shortage
Strikes
Inflation
Terrorism
Chemical spill
Resilient to what?
Sustainable Living in the Suburbs

5. How do we become more resilient?
each element performs multiple functions, and each function is served by multiple elements
How do we become more resilient?
Sustainable Living in the Suburbs

6. Each function supported by multiple elements

7. Each element performs by multiple functions

9. Permaculture Zones 0, 1, 2
Zone 0. Home: indoor production (sprouts/ferments), processing food, waste, water & energy collection, repairs and education, relax, work and where you practise reduced consumption and re-cycling.
Zone 1. Nearest to the house, for elements that require frequent attention, or be visited often, e.g., salad crops, herb plants, soft fruit like strawberries or raspberries, greenhouse and cold frames, propagation area, worm compost bin for kitchen waste, etc.
Zone 2. Farther from house the place for perennial plants or self-maintaining plants and elements needing infrequent work: mulching, pruning bushes, orchards, compost area, animals eg. poultry, rabbits, worm farm, bees

10. Permaculture Zones 3, 4, 5
Zone 3. Occasionally visited areas where main crops are grown, for domestic and for trade use. After establishment, care and maintenance is fairly minimal e.g., watering or mulching once a week or so. Self-fed animals (stock), seasonal crops e.g. corn, wheat, rice, pumpkin, bamboo.
Zone 4. Semi- Wild food gathering (e.g. nuts, native fruits, mushrooms) wood for Fuel, Self seeding trees, soil microbes semi-wild. This zone is mainly used for forage and collecting wild food as well as timber production.
Zone 5. Wilderness area – a rarely visited area often linked with neighbouring wildlife corridors. Sometimes managed to reduce risk of catastrophes i.e. fire/pollution/drought/hurricane. There is no human intervention in Zone 5 apart from the observation and enjoyment of natural eco-systems and cycles.

11. Sustainable Living in the Suburbs
Most resilience work in Urban areas
Sustainable Living in the Suburbs

12. These are the Zones of our lives
Sustainable Living in the Suburbs

13. Sustainable Living in the Suburbs
Zone 0 – preserves and other stored food/ seeds
Zone 1 – home garden/chook run/fruit trees /herb spiral
Zone 2 – Friends/neighbours garden, community garden/ school, church, business gardens /community orchard
Zone 3 – farmers market, community supported agriculture/foraged foods/food coop
Zone 4 – Independent groceries with regional focus/ IGA
Zone 5 – National chain supermarkets – Woollies/Coles
FOOD
Sustainable Living in the Suburbs

14. Sustainable Living in the Suburbs
Zone 0 – Internal water storage, hot water tank/toilet cistern
Zone 1 – Rainwater tanks/bore/well/ swales on property rain garden/backyard pond
Zone 2 – Friends’/neigbours’ water tanks/storage, swales off property but nearby, water from neighbours roofs diverted to your tanks
Zone 3 – local streams, dams, ponds
Zone 4 – larger rivers
Zone 5 – reticulated water supply
WATER
Sustainable Living in the Suburbs

15. Sustainable Living in the Suburbs
Zone 0 – bokashi bin, greywater capture
Zone 1 – greywater re-use/constructed wetland/composting system/worm beds repair capacity/skills workshop
Zone 2 – friends repair capacity/skills/resources/tools/workshop etc
Zone 3 – freecycle; community composting/worm farming
Zone 4 – Community recycling, drop off depots
Zone 5 – Landfill/centralised waste collection/ centralised composting
WASTE
Sustainable Living in the Suburbs

16. Sustainable Living in the Suburbs
Zone 0 – home/web based employment
Zone 1 – consulting /self employment requiring work outside the home/the informal economy
Zone 2 – cooperative employment/informal economy
Zone 3 – paid employment within reach of public transport, Local Employment Trading Scheme
Zone 4 – paid employment requiring car, local currency
Zone 5 – paid employment away from home/travel/deployment, Community exchange system
FINANCE/ECONOMIC
Sustainable Living in the Suburbs

17. Sustainable Living in the Suburbs
Zone 0 – Skills and knowledge to enable repairs/home manufacture from produced materials
Zone 1 – Workshop and tools for repairs/stockpile of reclaimed materials/home produced materials, home manufacture of items
Zone 2 – Second hand materials from roadside/provided by friends & family etc.
Zone 3 – Men’s shed/second hand dealers/charity shops
Zone 4 – Small/local retailers and manufacturers
Zone 5 – National chain stores
CONSUMPTION/STUFF
Sustainable Living in the Suburbs

18. Sustainable Living in the Suburbs
Zone 0 – primary dwelling
Zone 1 - secondary dwelling on the property eg shed or tiny house
Zone 2 – access to shelter with friends /family/ neighbours, caravan on friends land
Zone 3 – Tent/mobile housing eg caravan on public land
Zone 4 -
Zone 5 – public shelter/hotel/motel
SHELTER
Sustainable Living in the Suburbs

19. Sustainable Living in the Suburbs
Zone 0 – phone, internet or post
Zone 1 – accessible by walking
Zone 2 – accessible by Bicycle, car pool
Zone 3 – Accessible by Public transport - bus, train, tram
Zone 4 – accessible requiring car/taxi
Zone 5 – access requiring Plane/ship
SERVICES
Sustainable Living in the Suburbs

20. Sustainable Living in the Suburbs
Zone 0
Zone 1
Zone 2
Zone 3
Zone 4
Zone 5
ENERGY
Sustainable Living in the Suburbs

21. Sustainable Living in the Suburbs
Zone 0 – Solar electricity/solar hot water on house/passive heating/cooling strategies/insulation wood heater
Zone 1 – external solar panels/solar oven/ rocket stove
Zone 2 - wood supply for combustion heater/cooker, foraged fuel for rocket stove
Zone 3 – local renewable energy project/community owned energy production
Zone 4 – Reticulated electricity (renewables)
Zone 5 – reticulated gas and electricity (fossil fuel)
ENERGY
Sustainable Living in the Suburbs

22. Sustainable Living in the Suburbs
Use zones as a thinking tool
Review each aspect and examine your current state
Decide if any changes are required
Prioritise your actions
Develop a plant to carry out your desired actions
Go go go!
What Next?
Sustainable Living in the Suburbs

24. For more details check our website
Sustainable Living in the Suburbs
For more details check our website