2.1 Three ethics and twelve principles

Permaculture has a set of ethics at its core, techniques and methodical steps to assist in the design process and a call to action and twelve principles to guide this.

The set of ethics includes:

• care for Earth
• care for people
• fair share.

Permaculture is not alone in being ethically based. Many worldviews and beliefs, arising from differing contexts, share this way of thinking e.g. Lepine et al. (2004) who stated that permaculture makes the ethics of Earth care, people care and fair shares explicit within a design process, removing them from the realms of philosophy and rooting them in everybody's lives. Harland (2013) says these transform thinking into doing. Whatever action is taken and whichever principles are worked with, they need to meet these three ethics. When these ethics are incorporated into a pedagogy, they will provide immense support for the development of a sustainable society.

The twelve principles in the diagram below, likewise, provide a set of universally applicable guidelines that can be used in designing any sustainable system. They have been derived from the thoughtful observation of nature and earlier work by ecologists, landscape designers and environmental scientists.

Figure 1  The Permaculture Flower

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In the centre of the image are three core priniciples: care for Earth, care for people and fair share. The second layer of the 'flower' is seven categories: land and nature stewardship, built environment, tools and technology, culture and education, health and spiritual wellbeing, finance and economics, land tenure and community governance. The outer layer of the flower is the 12 principles. 1) observe and interact, 2) ccatch and store energy, 3) obtain a yield, 4) apply self-regulation and accept feedback, 5) use and value renewable resources, 6) produce zero waste, 7) design from patterns and details, 8) integrate rather than segregate, 9) use small and slow solutions, 10) use and value diversity, 11) use edges and value the marginal, 12) creatively use and respond to change.

Figure 1  The Permaculture Flower