Our Impact | Permaculture Association

Permaculture is a positive, healthy and exciting discipline. It can help us make the most of life and create positive opportunities for ourselves, others and the natural world. Even if there weren’t big challenges, permaculture would still be a great thing to learn about!

Sadly though, we do face enormous problems, with the interconnected social justice, climate and ecological crises being the greatest challenges of our time.

The science is clear - with resource depletion, devastating storms, topsoil loss, dangerous floods, melting glaciers, rising seas, extinction and environmental health concerns becoming increasingly commonplace, it’s more urgent than ever that we change our thinking and begin working on solutions together. There are things that all of us can do to help change this, with permaculture enabling people to make these changes.

Sustainability is not enough, we can be regenerative in our designs and active in our personal contribution to positive change.

“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”

Impact through our Education Programmes

Permaculture is used to design regenerative systems at all scales - from home and garden to community, farm, business and bioregions. Permaculture education leads to change. The Permaculture Association is a worldwide leader in permaculture education, providing high-quality, trusted and transformative education.

With over 40 years of supporting schools, colleges, universities, farms, gardens and individual lives - our education making a difference. We are leaders in community led, nature-based solutions.

‘It was a lightbulb moment, whereby everything the course taught made perfect sense and strongly resonated with my values and beliefs. I could see how I want permaculture to be in my everyday life and to then go on and introduce and educate others.’

We have 54 Internationally recognised Certified Teachers, offering high-quality education worldwide.

On average 600 students a year earn a Permaculture Association Permaculture Design Course (PDC) certificate.

Jo Barker teaching at the Festival of Permaculture

Our course listings page is the most popular page on our website, providing learners with both tailored searches for their area and online learning listings for hundreds of courses per year.

Since our online learning platform began we have provided accessible and affordable education to over 800 learners.

Our education network is a rich and international mix of over 130 educators, tutors, facilitators and changemakers; all working together in their respective fields, to improve the quality and accessibility of education. We have partnerships with over 500 educators worldwide with a focus on improving lives.

Working with educators in universities, colleges, schools, businesses, farms, community projects and gardens across the world, we are reaching mainstream bodies and improving individual lives.

We have a strong Education Working Group who volunteer to regularly assess and improve our education work, suggest curriculum improvements, support JEDAI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, Accessibility, Inclusion) work and co-design events to help take the network forward.

‘Felt like it opened a whole new world to me and gave me hope for the future’

Impact through our Climate Action Work

52 Climate Actions

Since launching our 52 Climate Actions website and campaign in July 2019, we have had 48,441 unique visitors and over 217,000 page views!

We have spoken at 8 conferences, delivered a series of climate action newsletters, and continue to review and develop the climate action content on out website.

Community Climate Coaches

Community Climate Coaches is an exciting, Europe-wide community climate action and climate justice project aimed at catalysing, supporting, and co-creating transformative change at the local and (bio) regional levels through community-led initiatives.

We created a CCC Toolkit, Handbook and Good Practice Guide all of which include a section on 52 Climate Actions, as well as producing 12 case studies good practice in community climate action.

Impact through our Learning and Demonstration Sites

We support over 660 projects and LAND network members through our project support offer. As well as receiving regular newsletters and monthly online masterclass and gatherings, they have access to our partner insurance discount with Zurich and the opportunity to promote their work through the Permaculture Association network.

Our partnership with Zurich enabled us to deliver a 12 month programme of tailored masterclasses which directly responded to the needs of people and organisations working in demonstrating permaculture and regenerative practices.

Read our Zurich Partnership Report

Over 300 people attended our masterclasses and they are now available to rewatch to all our members.

Permaculture Project Map

We are continually developing our mapping of permaculture-inspired projects and LAND centres. With 600+ mapped projects and growing- find one near you.

Impact through Membership

Permaculture is important to me because I believe I offers many solutions to the global challenges we face and it has the potential to change people's lives for the better. It certainly did that for me in no small way and because of this I continue to share it with others through my writing and by teaching courses.

Becoming a part of the permaculture network back in 2000 connected me to so many inspiring people and guided me to those flagship land-based projects with which I still work today.

Marketing support

We actively promote our member's work through our monthly newsletters, social media and the Permaculture Community Hub.

Each month, we feature a member on our blog and work with them to coordinate promotional activity for their organisation.

Movement building

Our journal Permaculture Works is a 64-page in-depth feature journal which explores regenerative issues in depth and with consideration about the future. We have moved to a programme of online Digital Campfire events where we invite our members to join us, as changemakers, and explore a new future.

Signposting and support

We support over 2000+ members and thousands of members of the public on their permaculture journey, dealing with hundreds of requests each day. From enquiries about learning pathways, support with funding applications or how to embed permaculture into the curriculum, we are the national body supporting the permaculture movement in Great Britain.

Two people at Hulme Community Garden Centre

A membership package for everyone

We have tailored our membership packages to make our support offer as accessible as possible. Whether you want to be a designer, farmer, teacher or just getting started, we have tiered costs to suit everyone.

Impact through Diploma in Applied Permaculture

“My Diploma helped me to design how the family works, rests and plays whilst treading more lightly. It also helped me to design my own business when faced with redundancy.”

204 Diploma graduates since the Diploma started

122 current apprentices currently on the Diploma in Applied Permaculture

45 Diploma tutors on our Tutor Register

162 Diploma designs to explore in the Design Library

People dancing at Festival of Permaculture

Join as a member

The Permaculture Association is the UK’s leading charity providing nature based solutions. Since 1983, our members have been at the forefront of regenerative agriculture, green community development, sustainable living and natural gardening.

Join as a regular member or professional to transform your house and garden, meet others, access our extensive project support materials, develop your skills and showcase your education, design or consultancy experience to others.

The world is in crisis, permaculture gives people the tools and confidence to respond. A better world is possible.

Education

Project & LAND