Nick Huggins : Sounds good Ethan. Mate, I working on a PC model called PC Business world. I sat down with Geoff Lawton last week to see how this can be adapted in to his internship. Looking at ways PC grads can set up a ethical business. I would like to get your feed back. See my post on my profile page. Nick Huggins

Kirsten Bradley : We (Milkwood) are still looking for the best model for our business to make the most of these sorts of things...

At the moment though, we're just a Permaculture Business. We subscribe to the three ethics: earth care / people care / fair share, we share our profits back into the communities we work within through subsidised course places, building free aquaponics systems, funding community garden blitzes, school gardens etc etc.

We also fund intern programs and a host of other stuff, we feel this is the best way we can share and transfer knowledge and skills to others, within our capacity as a small family farm with a permaculture business attached.

In my mind, what would be best of all would be if we could just run normal businesses ethically, with tithe systems and pay-it-forward targets built in. To me, that's what a Permaculture business should be. I'm not sure we need a non-profit or SE structure to achieve what we should be doing anyway.

But like i say, we're only 3 years in on our business journey... maybe there is the perfect structure out there that could make our situation work even better - let me know what you discover, ethan!

Kirsten Bradley : ew. comments loose their formatting when posted... now it just looks like a rant! :)

Ethan Roland : No worries Kirsten - Your bright mind shines through the formatting!


I had a significant re-evaluation of my permaculture business this winter, 5 years into the journey. I realized that I did EVERYTHING Geoff Lawton invited me to do during the PDC - Started a design business, taught PDCs all over the world, organized on the local level... and yet, large-scale change was still not happening in my bioregion. I started to think, "What can I do to leverage my permaculture even further? How can I create the largest positive change?"


I'm sure I don't have the answers yet, but I think this move into the realm of eco-social entrepreneurship is part of the puzzle. I'll keep you posted as things move forward!

Ethan

Vanessa Monge Augusto Fernandes : @Kristen,you and Nick are respected and admired in Australia for the way you have created Milkwood and all of the returning of surplus you do.Very inspirational,watching you grow even further will be a lesson to us all. Van

Emily Sessoms : Ethan, this is exactly what I am interested in pursuing. I am fascinated by both permaculture and social entrepreneurship/social business and am actually studying with the Sullivan Foundation on social entrepreneurship this summer and then doing a PDC course with the hopes of combining both great missions.

Have you read Muhammad Yunus' "Creating a World Without Poverty"? There are many different definitions of social entrepreneurship, and in my opinion, some are more aligned with what I interpret as being most environmentally/socially beneficial while others focus completely on financial profits.

I will continue to investigate this, it would be great to exchange ideas, resources, and experiences. I think these are concepts that have extraordinary potential. My e-mail is esessoms@rollins.edu

Jana Hammonds-Jennings : What is the outlook on this now? I'm new to permaculture and would absolutely love to be involved in this full-time.

Jennifer Jennings : Ethan, Nick, and Kristen - this is exactly what I dream of in my part of south Jersey. We are a mix of urban, suburban, and rural, which gives us an unusual integration opportunity for social permaculture projects. Camden, NJ, is 20 miles from us and has huge possibilities in this area; any information to help us apply social regenerative design to this issue is a big deal. Please keep me in the loop concerning this topic. My email is thehavenmaven@gmail.com - and thanks for all your work!