Building a more just and resilient Denver.
The Denver Permaculture Guild is a community organized, membership-based nonprofit with the aim of building healthy, resilient, regenerative, and inclusive Denver area communities.
We bring permaculture to life by engaging, educating, and energizing people with a focus on the following three goals:
Community
Healthy, resilient, regenerative communities are ones that need each other to thrive. The DPG fosters the development of these interdependent, hyper-local communities through networking events, online forums, and workdays.
Education
Communities need people with critical knowledge and expertise to problem solve, design, and create thriving communities. DPG currently provides basic and advanced training around a host of resiliency and regeneration-related subjects through its workshops and courses, as well as those of partner members.
Livelihoods
In a regenerative city, the economy works for everyone. To that end, we work to nurture and promote the development of permaculture-based businesses and cooperatives, from edible landscaping to holistic childcare, that encourage and generate meaningful livelihoods for Denver area residents of all backgrounds.
Permaculture is more than smart gardening.
It’s more than urban agriculture and green activism, more than backyard chickens or food forests, solar panels or bike trailers.
Permaculture is a problem solving methodology; a practical, positive answer to the crises of our time.
At Denver Permaculture Guild, we recognize the huge number of people and organizations who may not identify with the word “permaculture,” but are working towards the same purpose: to establish stable and regenerative human habitats that enrich and heal the greater environment.
EARTH CARE.
PEOPLE CARE.
FAIR SHARE.
In permaculture design, we work to model patterns in the natural world, with existing ecosystems rather than against them.
These principles and ethics are drawn from the balance and harmony found in natural ecosystems. At permaculture design courses around the world, students learn a set of ethics, principles, and decision-making tools. A great introduction to one set of permaculture principles can be found via David Holmgren here.
Permaculture is for builders, lawyers, artists, and caretakers; for community organizers, teachers, gardeners, accountants, and scientists. Permaculture can help in any facet of human communities, and the more diverse and varied the movement becomes, the stronger and more resilient it will be.
This is a crucial time, an inflection point in the history of the human species. Intentional permaculture design is one tool to meet the challenges we’re faced with. And because every situation is unique, it presents an opportunity for limitless creativity.
Permaculture is an approach that can be applied to succeed with whatever problems or opportunities emerge.
Our Permaculture Design Courses
Permaculture Design Course (PDC)
The Denver PDC is a 112-hour course that includes the core 72-hour internationally-certified curriculum as well as a number of detailed breakout sessions and regionally appropriate resources.
Advanced Landscape
Design Course
This program allows participants to dive deeper into the PDC design topics, create a support network, and learn the skills of professional-level permaculture design from top practitioners in the field.
Zone In:
Social Permaculture
Our Social Permaculture course is for those who want to learn how to build better community and social systems and build capacity for genuine collaboration. Learn tools to create conditions for nurturing healthy, resilient, and inclusive communities, homes, teams, and organizations.
PDC
Teacher Training
We team up with the Boulder Permaculture facilitators to prepare instructors to teach any of the classes, to facilitate and coach, and to refresh and add to their skills.
