Permaculture Principles
Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren are credited with coining the concept Permaculture during the 1970s. They were combining the ideas of permanent and agriculture and it blended into permaculture. The concept soon included the combining of permanent and culture as well. They began documenting an approach to designing human settlements focusing on development of perennial agricultural systems that mimic the structure and interrelationships found in nature.
The Eco-Entrepreneur program is interested in helping young entrepreneurs learn green business principles that will guide their actions and decisions to create sustainable, financially successful enterprises.
We can use the permaculture principles in business and personal relationships to guide our work. Permaculture has a fundamental set of "core values" or ethics which remain constant in all situations. We are specializing in helping create a series of concepts and working principles in the field of financial permaculture, the field of blending localized, decentralized sustainable finance principles with universal permaculture principles.
Join us in helping discover money and investment strategies that create permanent culture.
- Earth Care--recognizing that the Earth is the source of all life and that we recognize and respect that the Earth is our valuable home and we are a part of the earth, not apart from it.
- People Care--supporting and helping each other to change to ways of living that are not harming ourselves or the planet, and to develop healthy societies.
- Fairshare--(placing limits on consumption) ensuring that the Earth's limited resources are utilized in ways that are equitable and wise.
David Holmgren's design principles
1. Observe and Interact-By taking the time to engage with nature we can design solutions that suit our particular situation.
2. Catch and store energy- By developing systems that collect resources when they are abundant, we can use them in times of need.
3. Obtain a yield- Ensure that you are getting truly useful rewards as part of the work that you are doing.
4. Apply self-regulation and accept feedback-- We need to discourage inappropriate activity to ensure that systems can continue to function well.
5. Use and value renewable resources and services -Make the best of nature's abundance to reduce our consumptive behavior and dependence on non-renewable resources.
6. Produce no waste-By valuing and making use of all the resources that are available to us, nothing goes to waste.
7. Design from patterns to details-By stepping back, we can observe patterns in nature and society. These can form the backbone of our designs, with the details filled in as we go.
8. Integrate rather than segregate- By putting the right things in the right place, relationships develop between those things and they work together to support each other.
9. Use small and slow solutions-Small and slow systems are easier to maintain than big ones, making better use of local resources and producing more sustainable outcomes.
10. Use and value diversity- Diversity reduces vulnerability to a variety of threats and takes advantage of the unique nature of the environment in which it resides.
11. Use edges and value the marginal- The interface between things is where the most interesting events take place. These are often the most valuable, diverse and productive elements in the system.
12. Creatively use and respond to change-We can have a positive impact on inevitable change by carefully observing, and then intervening at the right time.
It is the desire of our Financial Permaculture design team to continue to connect the principles of sustainable finance with the principles of permaculture.
