This presentation explores how permaculture design can be applied to create new business models.

1. creatingpositivefutures.net
Vision + Development | Performance Optimisation | Project Management | Content + Communications

2. The Systematic Approach:
Using Permaculture (+ Other Wisdom) to
Reshape Life and Work
Presented by Chris Tobias, Lead Strategist

3. What we’re talking about
Quick Outline
1) The need
2) Overarching issues
3) Patterns to details
4) Change isn’t bad.
5) Introduction to Permaculture
6) Forward Case Study: 12 Principles in Action
7) Business as a tool for change
8) Wrap up and conclusion

4. The most harmonious life is the one in which theory and practice are
unified. – Helen + Scott Nearing

5. Why?
Life as we know it needs to be redesigned to:
- solve the problems we created
- to be more enjoyable
- live in a balanced way in the world we inhabit
… so what are the main problems we are facing?

6. “Girl, we got issues!”
Macro level We’re impacted by these…
- climate change
- peak energy
- mismanaged financial systems, etc.
Systemic problems Which are enabled by these…
- inadequate design
- over consumption of resources
- short term outlook, etc.
Individual issues And rooted here.
- selfishness + greed
- laziness
- debt + consumerism cycles
- disconnection from our environment
- isolation from our community
- wrong values, lost morals, confusion with complexity

7. Save the planet? The real Earth does not need saving. It can, will and
always has saved itself and it is now starting to do so by changing to a
state much less favourable for us and other animals.
What people mean by the plea is “save the planet as we know it”.
That is now impossible. – James Lovelock

8. Working From Pattern To Detail:
It all starts with us. It will all end with us.
- Elevate personal responsibility
- Take individual initiative
- Stop making excuses for the things that don’t work
- Be bold enough to change and adapt
Time is not on our side.

9. Business as usual isn’t doing us
any favours.
If our pattern of existence is killing us, is change
really that scary?
… or is it just a matter of perception and priorities?

10. This is not about gloom and doom.
This is a case study of proactive action.
This project looks at how permaculture principles can
be applied to solve problems and affect the bigger
picture, using a business as a case study.

11. Permanent Culture.
Oxymoron, or possible reality with better
planning?
Permaculture is a design system based on ethics and
principles which can be used to establish, design, manage,
and improve all efforts made by individuals, households, and
communities towards a sustainable future.
-- David Holmgren
Permaculture was co-originated by David Holmgren and Bill
Mollison in the 1970s. The system was originally applied to
agriculture, (permanent + agriculture = permaculture) but has
evolved for use in society and business. It uses patterns and
logic found in nature to solve problems.
For more information, visit www.permacultureprinciples.com

12. Observation + Interaction =
Involvement
Personally and professionally we do this
in person and online.

13. We do this in a number of ways.
We believe interaction is better than advertising.
- Green Drinks + networking
- Leading community projects like UHS
- Mentoring groups like Nexus
- Learning through workshops
- Sharing information on Forward Thinking,
Twitter, Celsias, LinkedIn, etc.

14. From a business point of view, this
enables us to:
- Be visible
- Meet people
- Help others
- Share expertise
- Keep knowledge current
- Understand context
- Grow and influence culture
- Take leadership opportunities
… and also means:
- No need to waste money or material in
advertising or excessive marketing.

15. Let’s be energetic.
Energy comes in many forms.
- as information
- as interest, curiosity, and catalyst
- in human relationships
- in money

16. For example:
- We use website mechanisms to capture contact information and interest from
visitors, and to publicly archive beneficial information
- We use an energy strategy and efficient equipment to save power and money
- We deliberately make the conscious effort to connect with people
- We use a financial plan to help grow earnings and strategically use what has
been earned
- We spend with locally owned businesses that support our ethics
- We invest locally to contribute to financial sustainability

17. What are you working for?
Are you making a life, or earning a living?
It’s about:
- finding and seizing new opportunities - efficient business processes
- developing skills - reduced stress
- creating goodwill - improved quality of life
- improved satisfaction - empowerment and control
- maximised tax benefits - realising dreams
- learning through success and failure
- freedom
- exploration
- experimentation
…in short, experience is the best yield.

18. For Example
A business enables yields of many kinds:
- Positive lifestyle changes (enabled by implementing a
“Results Only Work Environment” or ROWE)
- Focused, meaningful way to “make a living”
- A way to progress ethics, values, morals, and goals
- Visible way of “walking the talk” through client projects that
reinforce values and brand
… $$$ does come into the mix.
It just isn’t the primary driver or reward.

19. What the hell would I want with $50 million compared to the satisfaction
of putting together something worthwhile? – Sir Angus Tait

20. Control what develops.
Systematically design the
process from the ground up.
Enable critical examination and judgment by implementing
- business plan and practices
- quarterly and annual reviews
- feedback from clients, website visitors, and the general public
- personal development log

21. One obvious decision.
Source renewable, ‘carbon-neutral’ energy.

22. Waste = poor design.
Linear thinking is so last century.
Emphasize redesigning processes, reducing
consumption, reusing, recycling materials and
nutrients. Engineer out the waste to begin with.

23. Translating this into action:
- Consumption is de-emphasized. We do not need the latest, greatest
everything simply because it has been made and we can afford to buy it.
- What we do buy, we handle responsibly. Our average weekly output profile:
• 8L material to recycling (send the materials back to use)
• 6L sent to compost (send the nutrients back to the soil)
• 1L to landfill (usually food wrapping that cannot be readily reused or recycled)
- We purchased a perfectly good Aeron office chair (ergonomic, repairable, and
able to be disassembled for end of life recycling) & deliberately bought it used.
- We avoid the temptation to needlessly print by not having a printer to begin
with. Communications, invoices, and other materials are sent in electronic
format via PDF and email.
- Ongoing reuse of packing supplies for moving and shipping purposes, reuse
of scrap paper for notes and design exercises.
- Only printed marketing material is business card printed on recycled paper
- All hazardous materials (e.g. CFLs, electronics, etc.) are appropriately
recycled in safe fashion.

24. It’s all in the details.
Think it through, plan it out.
Relate individual choices and decisions to the big
picture, think laterally, and seek to go with best
practice at all times. Use creative thinking rather
than cop outs. This presentation gives proof of
possibilities and new ways of doing business.

25. Stop ‘my patch’ mentality.
Collaborate to problem solve and find new
opportunity.
Less time competing, more time innovating. Blue Ocean Strategy.
Focus on cooperation, synergy, and maximising benefits for everyone.
This is key to a truly resilient economy.

26. How we did it:
We continually reach out to other businesses offering similar and complimentary
services to ours. We seek to build relationships, arrange contra agreements,
share information, swap expertise, and pass along clients. It’s about dovetailing
and cooperation.
One successful partnership has evolved with our website development
company, Netpotential.
We actively sell on each other’s behalf, assist each other’s clients, and help with
in house questions and projects. Projects go smoothly.
It is a great example of a partnership based on mutual respect and maximising
the benefits for all involved.

27. What’s the big rush?
It’s about quality, not necessarily quantity.
Why is bigger, better, faster, more still the paradigm?
What really is a ‘career’? What is ‘progress’? What
is ‘success’?
We’re about redefining ‘growth’ for its own sake.
Let’s be adaptive in uncertain times, rather than rely
on definitions from the past.

28. Only after the last tree has been cut down
Only after the last river has been poisoned
Only after the last fish has been caught
Only then will you find you cannot eat money
-- Cree prophecy

29. Maybe one rule holds true.
Diversify, diversify, diversify.
So it is in the natural environment, so too should it be
in business. We actively seek:
- interdisciplinary projects
- new colleagues and collaborators
- ways to expand our network
- diversity in clients (business, non-
profit organisations, government)

30. …so far, so good.

31. Sustainability is stale.
We need to stop talking to ‘ourselves’ in the
movement, and start influencing others.
That’s one of the main reasons we got started.
There’s a limit on self-indulgent chatting and
armchair solutions to major problems. Its time to
take action, to carry the discussion and the solutions
forward into a new era, and push the boundaries.

32. I believe that sustainability will not emerge in human
affairs until we begin to conduct economic activity in
harmony with the principles that shape all living systems
on earth. Then we will view a business as a natural living
system that thrives in a context of cooperation, restraint,
and quality, not in a context of competition, growth and
accumulation. That will be sustainability…
-- H. Thomas Johnson

33. Peak energy and climate change:
Let’s use business to creatively tackle
these big problems. And let’s have fun
doing it.

34. There is no rule saying you cannot use business for
purposes other than financial gain.
Let’s show what’s possible. Our business plan serves our
ethics and changes we’d like to see happen in the world.
Rather than fund the purchase of company cars, high rise
office space, expensive billboards, or promotional
merchandise, profits are directed at long term goals like
creation of a low-impact, integrated living demonstration
site (you might call it our ‘corporate headquarters’).

35. You never change anything by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the
old model obsolete.
-- Buckminster Fuller

36. If you remember nothing else
Remember this:
1) We are facing some significant global problems that will
drastically alter our way of living.
2) The root of these problems can be solved at an individual
level.
3) Change isn’t bad– in fact, doing nothing just might kill us.
4) Permaculture is a design philosophy based on natural
principles.
5) It is a useful strategy guiding our business.
6) Business can be used as a tool for positive change.
7) Ultimately, the answers and solutions come from us!

37. Tomorrow doesn’t need to be
another yesterday.
Starting from square one, we are the
change our world needs.

38. Contact Forward
We’d like to hear from you.
Chris Tobias, Lead Strategist
E chris@forward.net.nz
M +65 8406 2275
Skype Forward.net.nz
Visit the Forward Thinking Blog at
www.creatingpositivefutures.net
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