Permaculture 101 - A Design Tool for Grassroots Environmental & Social Change Work

Drawing on the wisdom of ecological systems, permaculture offers us a vision, design approach, and techniques to create a world of health and abundance. Permaculture distills this knowledge into simple principles that can be applied anywhere from your backyard to your organization. This webinar series is a primer for grassroots groups working on energy, food, new economy, and environmental health projects that are seeking design tools for inspired and positive change. Join us for Permaculture 101, to learn about permaculture principles and design tools and how they apply to your work.

Throughout the webinar series you will have the opportunity to:

  • Learn about permaculture history, ethics, principles

  • Identify connections between social, cultural, environmental, and political challenges

  • Recognize and analyze patterns found in society and the natural world

  • Apply whole systems thinking to problem solving through design

  • Observe, analyze, and assess a site to determine its resources and constraints

  • Gain knowledge of a rigorous design process

  • Learn techniques for clean water, soil, food production, buildings, and economics

  • Apply permaculture principles to make your organization more resilient

Presenters:

  • Lisa DePiano is a certified permaculture designer/teacher and writer with over 15 years of experience.  She has designed and built prominent permaculture projects including the Montview Neighborhood Farm, one of the first public urban-farm and edible forest gardens in the country,  the greywater system for Occupy Wall Street and her work with the worker-owned collective Pedal People is  featured in the award winning documentary, Inhabit. Currently she is a faculty member for the Yestermorrow Design/Build School, the University of Massachusetts and a visiting scholar at the MIT media lab. She discovered permaculture while living with the Maya in Guatemala and was immediately drawn to its systems and solutions-based approach. She has studied permaculture with Starhawk, Penny Livingston Stark, and Dave Jacke and has taught thousands of students all over the world, including the Menominee Nation,  Haiti, Homer, AK, New York City, Miami, FL the University of Vermont, University of Massachusetts, and Wesleyan University.