Permaculture Institute

Permaculture Institute Inc. is a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion of Permaculture by offering Permaculture Design Courses, Teacher Training Retreats, and The Peoples Diploma. Founded in 1997 by Scott Pittman and Bill Mollison, the Institute’s work uses education and demonstration to accomplish our mission of training the next environmental and social change makers in the life-enhancing practice of Permaculture Design.

Permaculture is a design approach to regenerating ecosystems, creating just and peaceful communities, and thereby increasing permanence in human culture. With an ethical framework and the principles of the natural world as guidestones, Permaculturists ecologically produce food, create shelter, store water, design economic and governance systems, and meet human needs through ecological design.  Those who practice Permaculture well are deeply engaged with the natural world and have embraced a living systems paradigm. With decades of development and growth, Permaculture offers a leading environmental and social transformation approach.

We owe a debt of gratitude to indigenous and traditional land-based peoples all over the world. Permaculture is heavily influenced by people who live close to the earth and have demonstrated continuous inhabitation amid biodiverse ecosystems. As we strive to live appropriately on earth, we offer thanks for the development of skills, keeping seeds, and sharing of worldview and wisdom.

Bill Mollison and David Holmgren coined the term Permaculture Design in 1978 as a contraction between the words permanent and agriculture, later coming to mean permanent culture.

Permaculture Institute Inc. was formed in 1997 by co-originator of Permaculture Bill Mollison, and Scott Pittman. It was developed from the work of Permaculture Drylands Institute (PDI) founded in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA in 1987 by several early students of Mollison. PDI focused on applying Permaculture in arid regions worldwide and published the beloved Permaculture Drylands Journal. Mollison visited Santa Fe several times in his life, with the first visit in 1984. Scott Pittman met Mollison during that first visit while attending a seminar Mollison was giving. Almost immediately afterward Scott bought tickets to Kathmandu, Nepal to take a Permaculture Design Course with Mollison. This led to a long time relationship between the two which included teaching and traveling throughout the Former Soviet Union, Australia, South East Asia, Brazil, Ecuador, and the United States.

By 1996 Permaculture had grown exponentially worldwide and Mollison’s Permaculture Institute of Australia was no longer able to keep up with demand for information and courses. Bill and Scott got together and decided to start another Permaculture Institute in Santa Fe. This Institute was envisioned to lighten the load on the Australian institute by covering the Western Hemisphere. Permaculture Institute was founded in 1997 to develop this new work with Mollison and continue what Permaculture Drylands Institute had begun.  Bill Mollison, Francis Huxley, and Scott Pittman were the founding board.

Bill and Scott, Brazil, late 1980’s

Bill and Scott traveling in Russia, 1990’s

Bill and Scott’s California PDC, 1997