What sustainable businesses can learn from permaculture
24 september 2024
Eva's permaculture journey
Last year I travelled across Europe to explore community-driven social and sustainable projects. I ended up spending a lot of time at land-based projects (gardens, food forests, etc.). Many local projects take inspiration – and die-hard dedication – from Permaculture. And as my journey continued, I realised that permaculture isn’t just about farming. It relates to ways you can live and work in relation to others, including nature. Permaculture in the end is about crafting a system that is in harmony with its surroundings and can sustain itself without having to increase the use of resources. While its practical design principles are relevant for approaching your veggie garden, they can equally be applied to your business and work. Is (un)sustainability a challenge within your work field? Do you think your organisation can be more resilient, adaptive, and innovative? My guess is that Permaculture can help you out!
Permaculture: a framework to see the world around you
Permaculture is an approach to land management and settlement design that takes inspiration from flourishing natural ecosystems. It includes a set of design principles based on whole systems thinking. In learning about permaculture, the first stop for many is David Holmgren’s 1970’s book Permaculture: Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability which draws together 25 years’ worth of ideas into permaculture design. Holmgren’s book starts with three ethics that form the foundation of permaculture:
1. Care of the earth
Provision for all life systems to continue and multiply
2. Care of people
Provision for people to access those resources necessary for their existence
3. Fair share
Set limits to consumption and reproduction, and share the surplus
“Permaculture is a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of protracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless labour; and of looking at plants and animals in all their functions, rather than treating any area as a single product system.“ — Bill Mollison
While these principles might sound altruistic (and nothing wrong with that!) they also make a lot of business sense. Too often a business model – with good or great intentions – is crafted without considering the broader system in which it operates. Think of businesses that are built on scarce resources or that are only viable when continuously increasing sales and intensifying production.
Permaculture ethics very much align with theoretical frameworks in the sustainability field, like the nexus approach, which emphasizes the need for taking the interdependencies between our energy, water, and food system into account. But also, newer concepts like true pricing; which aims to better value the regenerating or depleting effects of global consumption and promote fair redistribution.
In short, permaculture offers a lens to better understand interconnections, in nature or between business and society.
I’m curious -do you apply permaculture principles? In your veggie garden, or perhaps in other contexts?
In my next blog I’ll tell you more about the 12 practical permaculture principles and how they can be applied to businesses.
