A while ago now I had a conversation with David Holmgren about how his 12 principles of permaculture might apply to business. It was just an initial exploration, but there was a great deal of useful stuff in it, and prompted by an article by Stefan Geyer in the latest Permaculture Activist magazine (wonderful as ever), who made reference to it, I thought it was time to put it out there for discussion. I hope you find it useful. The images are from the Permaculture Principles site, the best place to find out more about these principles. They have also produced a great diary and calendar which I’ll review tomorrow…

I have presented it in the following format; each principles opens with the title, Holmgren’s graphic and the ‘in a nutshell’ saying for each one, then in bold is the succinct summary of the principle from “The Transition Handbook”, and then my notes from my conversation with David.

General thoughts: in many ways business is already ahead of the rest of us in terms of some of the thinking approaches that are required for energy descent. They are used to thinking ‘lean’ and getting the most out of things. The shift will be from merely prioritising output to thinking more widely. These principles offer a good lens through which to look at how to build resilience for business.