WHAT IS PERMACULTURE?

Permaculture is a sustainable design science rooted in the patterns of nature. It is an ecological design science with practical applications that extend far beyond organic farming into every area of our lives. As a holistic design science, permaculture is a powerful paradigm of sustainability for governments, businesses, cities, communities and relationships. Permaculture is ultimately about maximizing the quality of life and health for everyone through smart design focused on maximizing sustainable yields.

Stated simply, the practice of permaculture pulls the greatest possible value from the smallest possible expenditure of resources. Predicated on a deep, abiding respect for all forms of life, permaculture embraces care for the environment and care for people, while taking care to limit consumption preserves valuable resources for future use. Permaculture designs incorporate these elementary principles to create a variety of sustainable living environments. Most importantly, permaculture design is very much inherently regenerative, ensuring that we actually replenish resources at a faster rate than we use them. Permaculture is a radically different way of understanding and interacting with our world.

As one of the largest international institutes for permaculture and sustainable living studies, Common Circle Education strives to inspire your physical and social growth. Our permaculture design curriculum teaches you how to apply naturally regenerative concepts to designs for sustainable living. Through experimentation and creative collaboration, you can help shape the future of the permaculture revolution.

SUSTAINABLE LIVING TRANSLATES INTO INCREDIBLE QUALITY OF LIFE

Sustainable living integrates the cycles of nature into every aspect of our lives. Just as most creatures instinctively synchronize their daily lives according to natural cues such as sunrise and sunset, permaculture designs embrace and empower the cycles that foster sustainable living.

For example, architects design passive solar buildings to maximize heat and light collection. Observation of the sun’s movement across the sky informs the architect’s site selection and window positioning. By adding a trombe wall that absorbs the sun’s heat and then releases it after dark to maintain a comfortable indoor environment, the architect expands nature’s day/night solar cycle and minimizes waste of resources.

Your own metabolic cycle also illustrates scientific permaculture principles. You can increase your system’s efficiency through physical activity. Exercise speeds up your metabolism and accelerates calorie conversion to muscle mass while strengthening your cardiovascular system. By maximizing your metabolic cycles with a balanced diet and regular exercise, you can minimize waste calories that your body stores as fat and improve your health.

Sustainable living dramatically enhances quality of life at the individual level and ultimately on a worldwide scale. Become engaged in the world paradigm shift to permaculture and help facilitate sustainable living for all forms of life – register for a Common Circle Education sustainable living course today and begin your green living journey.

SUSTAINABLE LIVING BIKE TOURS TAKE YOU AMAZING PLACES

As a natural extension of the Common Circle Education curriculum, our self-contained sustainable living bike tours offer hands-on-handlebars permaculture experiences. Each hosted bicycle tour is designed for beginners and seasoned cyclists alike. Whether this is your first bicycle tour or your tenth, taking a bike tour with others who share your interest in sustainability will certainly be a deeply enriching experience.

Bring your own bike tour gear (you can also rent) and we will supply the rest — good food, great companions and an unforgettable week-long bicycle tour. Immerse yourself in the beautiful bike tour panoramas and bond with members of your bicycle tour group. Our expert bicycle tour guides make the most of every experience along the route as lessons in sustainable living. Once you embark on your bicycle tour adventure you will quickly slip into natural rhythms. From the revolutions of your bicycle wheels to the renewed energy you feel each morning as you review your bicycle tour itinerary, you will find yourself in sync with the cycles of nature.

Most bike tours include stops at family-run organic farms, working eco-villages and other fun, instructive venues that exemplify sustainable living. Every bike tour follows a unique itinerary so no two bicycle tour sessions are alike. Your Common Circle Education bike tour facilitator will enrich your bicycle tour experiences with tremendous infusions of permaculture knowledge. Many bicycle tour participants quickly realize that sustainable living is not only essential to a healthy planet but to their own sense of health and well-being.

During each week long bike tour, you will take part in a new cycle of learning in which no experiences or resources go to waste. Each day of the bicycle tour reveals new lessons in sustainable living, whether taught by the natural patterns of wind, water and sun along the bike tour route or by a green business owner you meet at a bicycle tour stop.

Many bike tour participants sign up time after time to enjoy the fresh air and exercise. Every Sustainability in Motion bicycle tour is an opportunity to exchange knowledge with both the bicycle tour guides and other bike tour participants. You don’t have to be a seasoned cyclist to join a Common Circle Education bike tour, but you should have a thirst for sustainable living. Register for your first Common Circle Education bike tour today and change your life!