We previously wrote about permaculture and what it is, and we’re now going to take a look at the 12 individual principles, and how they can be applied to business.
1. Observe and interact
This principle is all about taking the time to engage with nature and your surroundings in order to design solutions that suit the situation. In a business sense, this can mean ‘looking out of the window and learning to read the clouds’, rather than relying on second-hand information from external sources. Think about asking the difficult questions and asking your customers for feedback.
2. Catch and store energy
Just as energy passes through natural systems and is stored in a variety of ways in trees, plants etc, successful businesses also store ‘energy’. The best way to do this is to switch conventional ideas of business capital from money in the bank to the resources that it has. This principle stresses the importance of working slower, with more financial reserves and fewer risks.
3. Obtain a yield
This principle states that any change we make to the system or business, should be productive. In a physical sense this would mean that if we were to plant a tree, it should be a productive one, or if we were to build a new roof it should be an edible, green one. In business, it may mean introducing a new team member to boost output, or launching a new service to reach new clients.
4. Apply self-regulation and feedback
This is essential for effective businesses, which need to be open to negative feedback in order to grow. A well-designed business is able to self-regulate and know when to apply restraint and avoid unsustainable growth rates. It is also about looking for negative feedback and using it to stay ahead of the game.
5. Use and value renewable resources and services
This principle is all about allowing nature to take its course when possible. It is about using renewable energy resources where possible, but also about broadening this concept to include things such as trust and goodwill, which can help build a business and are very much renewable resources.
6. Produce no waste
The concept of waste is essentially a reflection of poor design. Every output from one system could become the input to another system. We need to approach business cyclically rather than in linear systems.
7. Design from patterns to details
We need to be able to keep looking at our work from a range of perspectives. This principle argues that we need to see our work in the wider context, to keep a clear sense of the broader canvas on which we are painting, and the forces that affect what we are doing.
8. Integrate rather than segregate
By putting the right things in the right place, relationships develop between them and they support each other. Permaculture has been described as the science of maximising these beneficial relationships. Solutions are to be found in integrated, holistic approaches rather than increased specialisation and compartmentalisation, and the challenge for businesses is to move to seeing themselves as part of the geographical community and to become an integral part of it, rather than simply paying lip service to the locality.
9. Slow and small solutions
Economies of scale always encourage businesses to think bigger. While it is important to note that small is not always best, the notion that big is best needs to be challenged. It’s not right to assume that the big will replace the small. In practice what happens in business is that the big fish eat the fish just below them, but as they grow, a number of new opportunities open up at smaller scales – think about the emergence of small bakeries and breweries in recent times. Some of these opportunities can be hard to spot from a macro level but are much easier to understand from a small-scale perspective.
10. Use and value diversity
Monocultures are incredibly fragile and prone to disease and pests, whereas more diverse systems have much more inbuilt resilience. In a business sense this essentially means, don’t keep all your eggs in one basket. Build diversity into your offering, and in your workforce.
11. Maximising edge
One of the most important observations in permaculture is the idea of ‘edge’. The ‘edge’ is the point at which two ecosystems meet and become more productive than either of those systems are on their own. In business this is about giving importance to the marginal, having many interfaces and recognising that every person working for it represents it, and to then make the most of this.
12. Creatively use and respond to change
Natural systems are constantly in flux, evolving and growing. Remaining observant of the changes around you, and not fixating on the idea that anything around you is fixed or permanent, can help businesses to adapt to change.
We are trying to apply these principles to the way that we work, and found that we were already doing a lot of them without even realising! Do you think that they are a constructive set of guidelines to follow? We’d love to know what you think to this, or what permaculture principles you have applied to your business.
