Permaculture
What might it have to offer a green economist?


Definition
}‘The use of systems thinking and design principles that provide the organising framework for
implementing a vision of consciously designed landscapes that mimic the relationships and patterns
found in nature’

}‘Linear relationships are easy to think about: the more the merrier. Linear equations are
solvable, which makes them suitable for textbooks. Linear systems have an important modular virtue:
you can take them apart and put them together again—the pieces add up.
}Non-linear systems generally cannot be solved and cannot be added together . . . Non-linearity
means that the act of playing the game has a way of changing the rules . . . That twisted
changeability makes non-linearity hard to calculate, but it also creates rich kinds of behavior
that never occure in linear systems’
}James Gleick, Chaos: Making a New Science

Traditional wisdom
}‘Because of feedback delays within complex systems, by the time a problem becomes apparent it may
be unnecessarily difficult to solve’
}Translation: ‘A stitch in time saves nine’
}‘A diverse system with multiple pathways and redundancies is more stable and less vulnerable to
external shock than a uniform system with little diversity’
}Translation: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket

Howard Odum
}Odum developed methods for tracking and measuring the flows of energy and nutrients through
complex living systems
}Ways of understanding the links between flows of money and goods in society and the flows of
energy in ecosystems
}‘industrial man . . . eats potatoes largely made of oil’ Environment, Power and Society, 1971

}‘Odum proposed that a measurement of the amount of transformed solar energy embodied in any
product of the biosphere or human society—for which he coined the term ‘emergy’—could provide a
kind of ‘universal currency’ which would allow fair and accurate comparison of the human and
natural contributions to any particular economic process. This approach was so original that it has
still not been fully incorporated into thinking about responses to climate change, where
understanding the embodied energy in products is arguably more critical than only considering the
direct energy flows in electricity generation or the work of an internal combustion engine.’
}Steve Harris

A Proto-Transitioner?
}Devised the concept of an ‘energy descent’ in his final book A Prosperous Way Down (2001)
}Economic values based on measures of the quantity and quality of embodied solar energy, rather
than on monetary worth
•Modern societies have reached the climax of a period of massive growth driven by fossil fuel
energy: downturn is now inevitable




What permaculture says about economics



From linear to cyclical economy
•‘cannot turn pots back into clay’
•‘extracts fossil fuels and ores at one end and transforms them into commodities and waste
products’
•permaculture
}    suggests the need
}    to reuse our wastes
}
}
ken1 alder

Industrial ecology
}Industrial ecology provides a powerful prism through which to examine the impact of industry and
technology and associated changes in society and the economy on the biophysical environment. It
examines local, regional and global uses and flows of materials and energy in products, processes,
industrial sectors and economies and focuses on the potential role of industry in reducing
environmental burdens throughout the product life cycle.  (International Society for Industrial
Ecology website: http://www.is4ie.org/)




Life-Cycle Accounting
}Applies systems thinking to a production process
}Includes assessments of impacts in the product life-cycle outside the producing company
}
}All costs and benefits throughout the life-cycle
}
}‘cradle to cradle’—but without the assumption for continuing consumption
}

G:\2. Operations\2.2 Active Projects\A05003 - Why LC Brochure\Working post Nov2004\t-shirt
cycle.jpg


}Products can be evaluated through each stage of their life-cycle:
}Extraction or acquisition of raw materials
}Manufacturing and
}processing
}Distribution and transport
}Use and reuse
}Recycling
}Disposal
}For each stage, identify inputs of materials and energy received; outputs of useful product and
waste emissions
}Find optimal points for improvement –
eco-efficiency

Life-cycle consideration of a fridge
Refrigerator A
Refrigerator B
$
Acquisition
Refrigerator A
Refrigerator B
$
Disposal & Post-Disposal
Use
Acquisition
Purchase Price
Refrigerator A appears cheaper
Price + Life-Cycle Costs
Refrigerator B costs less overall

rainwater_system



Importance of scale
}Passive design is individual
}
passive%20design%20
nTraditional design used the principles ‘wrap up warm and face south’
n
n
nHow can a mass-market constructor follow this?
n
n

Case-study: reclaimed steel



Regional Emergy Intensities



Agricultural Emergy Intensities



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
}Stroud pound vs. Lewes pound
}Media and the importance of large
}‘Is it working?’

Integrate rather than segregate - By putting the right things in the right place, relationships
develop between them and they work together to support each other
}Companion planting
}Cottage industry?
}Synergy between different transition projects?
}Local production, local currency, local markets

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
}Can we use these principles in urban design?
}What about Abu Dhabi?
}What about Curitiba?

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
}Concept of liminality
}Creole cultures and music
}Guerrilla gardening
}Alternatives within capitalism, such as mutualism
}

}Choose three of the principles
}Think how you might apply them to an economic system or process to make it more sustainable