What is Permaculture

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adapted from Toby Hemenway’s Article, What Permaculture Isn’t – and Is

Permaculture is a design approach for creating sustainable, regenerative solutions.

It helps us make sense of a vast toolkit—all the human technologies and strategies available—and apply them to the pressing challenge of sustainability.

A Practical Guide for a New Paradigm

Permaculture acts as a blueprint for meeting human needs—such as:

  • Food

  • Shelter

  • Water

  • Energy

  • Waste management

  • Community

  • Health

  • Justice

  • Livelihood

—all while enhancing ecosystem health, not depleting it.

Rooted in Relationships

At its heart, permaculture is about relationships—between people and the environment, between systems and resources. It encourages us to think in relational terms, not isolated ones.

This is reflected in permaculture’s two core ethics:

  • Care for the Earth

  • Care for People

These principles guide every design choice, reminding us that sustainability isn’t just a goal—it’s a way of living in connection with the world around us.

towers growing things

Some background information & additional resources:

In the mid 1970s, Australian University Professor Bill Mollison and his grad student David Holmgren started to develop ideas about stable agricultural systems. This was in response to the rapid growth of destructive industrial-agricultural methods. They saw that these methods were poisoning the land and water, reducing biodiversity, and removing billions of tons of topsoil from previously fertile landscapes. They announced their “permaculture” approach with the publication of Permaculture One in 1978.

The term permaculture initially meant “permanent agriculture” but was quickly expanded to also stand for “permanent culture” as it was seen that social aspects were integral to a truly sustainable system. To find out about the roots of Permaculture, get hold of a copy of Permaculture One, Mollison and Holmgren, 1978.