Permaculture “focuses on positive responses to the world’s challenges” through three main ethical approaches: Earth care, People care and Fair Share
The 12 Permaculture principles provide a set of universally applicable guidelines that can be used in designing sustainable systems.
1. Observe and Interact: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”
2. Catch and Store Energy: “Make hay while the sun shines”
3. Obtain a Yield: “You can’t work on an empty stomach”
4. Apply Self-regulation and Accept Feedback: “We reap what we sow”
5. Use and Value Renewable Resources and Services: “Let nature take its course”
6. Produce no Waste: “Waste not want not”, “A stitch in time saves nine”
7. Design from Patterns to Details: “Can’t see the woods for the trees”
8. Integrate rather than Segregate: “Many hands make light work”
9. Use Small and Slow Solutions: “The bigger they are the harder they fall”, “Slow and steady wins the race”
10. Use and Value Diversity: “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”
11. Use Edges and Value the Marginal: “Dont’ think you are on the right track just because it is a well beaten path”
12. Creatively Use and Respond to Change: “Vision is not seeing things as they are, but as they will be”
