Legendary Permaculturalist Jerome Osentowski’s Future Uncertain

Jerome Osentowski, the founder of the Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute is known the world over as a gardening guru. But now he is facing a challenge from a pest he never anticipated: zoning. Around Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley, the legend is well-known: An eccentric old man living on Basalt Mountain had grown bananas at … Read more

Traditional Building Practices Offer Sustainable Solutions for African

Located in Burkina Faso the Lycée Schorge Secondary School shows what is possible when you mix traditional techniques and new materials. The school consists of nine modules arranged around a central courtyard that is protected from wind and dust. Each module is built out of locally sourced laterite which is cut into bricks and left … Read more

Regenerative Architecture on Sumu Island

On the island of Sumu Yakushima, Japan, designer Tsukasa Ono turned to regenerative architecture as his primary concept. An experimental housing cooperative jointly created by eight owners, this project in the woods was adapted to fit the surrounding landscape without cutting down large trees or leveling the ground; they raised the wooden buildings off from … Read more

Living Off-Grid in a Self-Built Cabin

Stephanie and Joel share their 14-year journey of building a home from reclaimed materials, living off-grid with solar power, and growing a lot of their own food, from fruits and veggies to milk, meat, and honey. They built their home on shared land using materials they salvaged from the dump, wood from a building they … Read more

Touring a Sufi Community in New Mexico

Yesterday I had a wonderful and rewarding experience of touring a nearby Sufi Community along with other members of our local Permaculture Group. We were invited there by Sequoia and Sunny to immerse ourselves  for a few hours in their nearly self-sufficient life. I was quite impressed by the extent of their accomplishments during the … Read more

Low Carbon Ways to Provide Shelter

In 2010, climatologists said Pakistan’s floods that year were “the worst natural disaster to date attributable to climate change”. Despite having less than 1% share in carbon emission, the country is ranked 8th in terms of exposure to climate hazards. Let’s stop sleepwalking towards the destruction of our planet by climate change. Private homes are … Read more