Nature has had billions of years to fine tune the design of sustainable, resilient and self-maintaining ecosystems, the basic functional units in nature. Our human-modified systems, while mostly ecologically dysfunctional are still subject to the laws of nature, and operate as ecosystems. Ecosystems therefore provide a logical framework for redesigning our own systems, whether they are gardens, farms, businesses or communities, to be more sustainable and self-maintaining.

In this workshop we will use ecosystem based design to look at the differences between the inputs and outputs of healthy natural ecosystems in comparison to human modified ecosystems. We will explore how we can use these measures to monitor and evaluate the efficiency of permaculture design tools and practices and other sustainability initiatives we propose for our system.