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The Permaculture Path to Sustainability

Urban Projects — by Emma Crameri March 29, 2012

The Permaculture Path to Sustainability illustrates the steps we can take to transition to a life with a smaller footprint on the earth.

When I was completing my Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC), I wanted a simple way to plan the future of our house and garden. I was feeling a little overwhelmed by all the different ideas buzzing around in my head. I needed to capture these and create a clear plan of attack.

I started by writing down all of the elements found in a typical permaculture garden and divided them into different categories. The categories are food production, fauna, practices, flora, energy, water, and waste.

I then sorted the elements out into levels. Each level reflects an increase in the level of difficulty, commitment and/or expense.

Level 1 is what you may find in an average suburban backyard.
Level 2 are practices and elements found in a more sustainable household. Perhaps the owners have been influenced by a book or gardening show on TV, or have been involved in a PermaBlitz. Only a few of the categories are closed loops.
Level 3 are practices and elements which are found in households dedicated to resilience, self-sufficiency, and sustainability. The owners view their property as a system. These households may be completely off-the-grid.

I love to see concepts come alive as a diagram, so I created a colourful table to illustrate “The Permaculture Path to Sustainability”:

	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3
Food Production	Vegetables beds (with annuals) Fruit trees	No-dig garden Mandala and key hole beds Herb spiral Seed saving	Bush tucker (native) plants Exotic edible plants Nut trees Perennials
Fauna	Native plants Bird bath	Nesting box Messy space and logs (for lizards, etc.)	Bee hive Chickens Fodder plants
Practices	Mulching	Companion plants Crop rotation	Crop succession Greenhouse Green manure Shade house
Flora	Native plants	Wind break	Fire break Trellising
Energy	Energy efficient bulbs and appliances	Insulation	Solar power hot water and energy Wood fired oven
Water	Buckets	Gray water hose Drip system Water tank	Grey water system Pond Swales and rain pits
Waste	Reusable containers & bags Recycling	Compost Bokashi Worm farm	Composting toilet Living mulch

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