Spiraling Toward Sustainability Permaculture Design at New College

Date of Award

2003

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

McCord, Elzie

Keywords

Environmental Studies, Environmental Design, Sustainability

Area of Concentration

Environmental Studies

Abstract

The fundamental problem dealt with by this document is that of how to live sustainably in the modem world. Permaculture design offers a format by which to evaluate a given site and develop an integrated plan to promote ecological and social sustainability. More specifically, this project addresses how Permaculture tradition may be applied at New College. First, it was necessary to explore the philosophical and ethical foundations of Permaculture tradition. I related Permaculture design principles to 'ecosophy' and bioregionalism, while I referred to ecocentrism and social ecology to explicate Permaculture ethics. Then, I performed basic ecological and social assessments. I Used standard field methods to assess the soil, water and vegetative health on the New College campus. I then conducted interviews of a select sample of the New College community to assess the following social sustainability indicators: food supply, health, shelter, energy, security and community cohesion. The next step was to integrate the data collected in these assessments into a cohesive design plan based on Permaculture principles and ethics. The Four Winds Caf6 was chosen as the site, due to its manageable scale. Finally, it was important to begin implementation of the plan in order to experiment and observe the implications of the design, thus spiraling toward sustainability. The major findings of the thesis are that the foundation philosophy and ethics of Permaculture are readily applicable to institutional settings. Furthermore, according to the ecological and social assessments of New College, there are improvements to be made in both realms. In formulating the Permaculture design for the Four Winds Cafe, it became clear that the tradition of Permaculture (and, therefore, the integrity of the design) was compromised due to the restraints of the institution. In conclusion, while traditional Permaculture design may be inapplicable in an institutional setting, there are clearly modifications in campus management that can be modeled after Permaculture teachings.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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