Growing Solutions: Permaculture on Campus is a series of 4 short videos about how permaculture is transforming university and college campuses across the continent. Students and permaculture teachers share how this has had an impact on education for sustainability, and how linking with academia can benefit the permaculture movement too.

Video #1 explores the problems and promise of the modern education system in light of a global ecological crisis. There’s a need for a more holistic perspective concerned with redesigning the ways humans meet our needs—one that motivates action in an age of eco-despair. Permaculture, an ecological design system, may help fill this need in universities.

Video #2 looks at an exciting movement to transform campus spaces into hubs for food and community connection. Campus permaculture projects are popping up across North America. Students and teachers show how their gardens and permaculture projects demonstrate innovative solutions for meeting human needs while enhancing the health of ecosystems.

Video #3 explores how permaculture can benefit an academic sustainability curriculum. Permaculture helps students see environmental challenges—and their own lives—in a different light. Permaculture is a toolkit that can be applied to many fields. It provides a thoughtful process for solving problems and developing solutions through hands-on learning.

Video #4 looks at what the academic world can offer to permaculture. Permaculture has largely evolved outside of academia, but offering permaculture education in universities makes it more accessible to young people, who can apply the framework to new challenges. Linking with academia can offer more integrity and research capacity to permaculture, and enhance its impact in the wider world.