The Sustainability Tax
A time where innovation and sustainability DEFINITELY had a cost.
Sustainability is not cheap or easy. It requires innovation, commitment, passion and sacrifice. That last one is what I call the Sustainability Tax. We paid it and are willing to share. Further down in this blog is a breakdown on exactly how on target we are with technology, energy, resources, and liverstock, gardens, and sustainability. It’s pretty intense.
Looking Deeper Into the costs of Sustainability
If you follow our blog or our social media, or have kids enrolled in camps or workshops, thank you. That means you also probably know that not only am I passionate about sustainability, but I live it. It’s not easy, but only because so much of what we do here at Mezzacello Urban Farm requires experimentation and iteration. That is expensive and trying. But someone has to do it.
You may think that it is not affordable or practical to apply as much sustainability as possible. You would be wrong. Sustainable infrastructure is not impractical and it must be addressed. The real truth of the sustainability tax is the failures. We are doing that work and failing forward, so you don’t have to. The fact of the matter is that by the fourth iteration of sustainable systems here at Mezzacello Urban Farm, the cost of doing the same work we did the first time cost, on average, 80% less.
I hate the idea of everyone trying to innovate and build sustainably and paying the price we have paid here (The Sustainability Tax). We believe people should be able to learn and build to sustainability into their lives with the right tips and tools. We are a non-profit, it is in our DNA and our mission to help. We can help, but first we need help.
How Can You Help? How Can We Help Sustainably?
You can help us right now in three ways.
First follow this blog and share a blogpost that you find intriguing. Blog posts can be searched by title, category, or topic.
Register for a camp, a workshop, a class , or a private event and come learn from our facility (and failures). You will be surprised at the breadth of programming we run here.
Consider making a donation to our non-profit. It would help a lot.
We are $30,000 short of completing the final lab here at Mezzacello Urban Farm, The Sustainability Lab.
It will unite the livestock research, the renewable energy lab, the bioengineering lab, the biotech lab, and the biodome.
We Will Continue To Research, Test, and Innovate
We are committed to the amended law of sustainability here at Mezzacello Urban Farm. The law of sustainability has four parts:
Everything at Mezzacello Urban Farm follows this simple equation
Commit to eliminate or reuse as much as possible
EVERYTHING must have more than one use - at least 3 other uses is appropiate
For any system, follow the numerator in the law of sustainability of 3:8+ That is for every 3 things you bring to a system, you should seek 8 or more outputs or at a minimum, 8 positive outcomes. This the top of the equation for Sustainability
For any system sustainability has an ecological and geographical footprint — growing too much will end in waste if you do not set your space and output parameters to match the denominator af the law of sustainability, 1: to the transcendental number phi (1.618)
This last part, The denominator flummoxes people the most, so let me simplify:
This is a map of Mezzacello Urban Farm and it’s integrated ecologies
We have eight chickens, 3 ducks, 4 quail, 4 rabbits, 3 guinea pigs, 14 Koi, and 2 catfish, and 20 birds and squirrels that live here year round.
We are not fond of the birds and squirrels, and we know they play a role in the ecologies, but we cannot afford to sustainably feed them
That is 50 animals, and each animal requires three meters of land, and 38L (10 gallons) of water annually
We have 1,022M (11,250ft) of land and 9,814L (2,593 Gallons) of water
Livestock requires 315M (3,391 feet) of land and 38L (10 gallons) x 35 = 1,900L (501 Gallons) of water
Just this quick estimation proves that we have to be frugal with square meters and livestock
Now to the ecologies, plants, and gardens! But first, some photos for context.
The amended law of sustainability and innovative permaculture means 0% of our water resources go to these gardens
Can you spot the water hogs in this photo? It’s the two Jasmine towers! They require a gallon of water every week. The rest - everything - is permaculture and zeroscape
The potager garden and the raised beds are watered automatically every other day using rainwater held in a 3M (10ft) bioreactor and water tower
Mezzacello Urban Farm has 24 garden beds, 7 formal garden rooms, and renewable resources of 4,000 L (1,057 gallons) Compost capacity, 10,000 L (2,642 Gallons) Rainwater cachement and purification capacity.
All of this requires resources to remain sustainable
Each square meter of the potager gardens, raised beds, tropical specimens, and annual flower beds requires
.29M^3 (10 ft^3) of compost
818L (216 Gallons) of water
10L (3 Gallons) of fertilizer
1L (1/4 Gallon) of Fertilizer
2L (1/2 Gallon) of Diatomaceous Earth and minerals
Over 270 days out of 365 days — This is Ohio.
Surprise!
With boxwood and plants, the trees and their permaculture beds (Scientists are dubious, but I follow his mandates successfully) and the fruit bushes we require ZERO Water as they are all growing in an engineered forest floor that is completely watered every time it rains for a maximum of 10 days.
One of the Parterre Gardens and the Pond beyond
The tower in the middleis the bioreactor/water tower/energy production station/weather station/5G Repeater/automatic sprinkler system/Compost Accelerator
The pond at Mezzacello, and the biofilter, UV filter, algae collector, and Bakki Shower with the algae processing station beyond, and the livestock shed and the VAWT systems above them.
The automated sprinklers on the vertical garden tower water all 4 quadrants of the potager garden, and all 9 Raised beds around the perimeter
The pollinator garden on the south face of Mezzacello Urban Farm. In the rear you can see the livestock shed at the southwestern edge of Mezzacello.
The main source of fertilizer and manure at Mezzacello Urban Farm. The surface is optimized to safely collect and UV expose poultry waste to cut down on acidity.
For the two parterre gardens, the pollinator runway, and the 24 potager beds and 9 raised beds we use annually:
71M sq (760 Ft sq) of land
112,066L (29,605 Gallons) of water
579L (153 Gallons) of compost
1,893L (500 Gallons) of Fintastic Fertilizer, Eden’s Ghost, and BioBlock fertilizer,
379L (100 Gallons) of mineral amendments
This is well within our sustainable window (I need to build an infographic around all these numbers and resources!)
Harvesting Eden’s Ghost Fertlizer from Compost
Other sustainable and mineral-rich fertilizers produced at Mezzacello Urban Farm
But what about energy?
We use 24 - 100W solar panels, 8 - 300W solar panels, 5 vertical axis wind turbines, 12 deep cycle battery arrays, and five - 1000W 15A AC/DC inverters
Because these resources are variable (Especially Solar) It’s hard to pin down exact energy production
Our records show that there were only 23 days in 2024 that we had to supplement power
And the VAWTs that capture traffic wind and natural wind from East Broad Street make up the lion’s share of our renewable energy resources — Thank you Traffic, boo on pollution though
Come Visit Us!
Great! You got this far! Come visit us at Mezzacello Urban Farm. It looks like a private yard in downtown Columbus, OH, but once you come in you’ll see it is actually a love letter to life, science, technology, and sustainability.
