PDC Module 6 - Cities, Energy & Shelter
Welcome to Module 6 of the full Permaculture Design Course. This modules focuses on aspects of urban permaculture, energy considerations when building our home or ho to make our existing homes more energy efficient. We’ll also be exploring resourcefulness and resource use in a world where there is so much waste. What you’ll find on this page is:
Your course content
Documents to use during live sessions
Useful handouts
Additional learning resources
Your assignments and course work
The quiz to test your learning and a feedback form
Enjoy your learning journey.
Course content
Water in the Home and City
Here you’ll find the recordings of live sessions latest 48 hours after completion:
Documents to use during live sessions
Useful handouts
Design process worksheets from Aranya - these sheets can be very useful to help guide you through your design process:
Additional learning resources
Videos & Films
My Town in Transition - Rob Hopkins
How to turn your neighbourhood into a village
Incredible Edible Todmorden
Books
Your assignments and coursework
Assignment 1: Your ecological footprint (approx. 30 minutes)
Calculate your ecological footprint through https://www.footprintnetwork.org/.
Fill in the detail as well to get a more accurate reading.
Here you can find more information on how the footprint is calculated. The webpage also holds information on the obvious limitations on calculating our ecological footprint.
You do not need to share these results with me if you don’t want to.
Assignment 2: Your actions (approx. 1.5 hour)
What I’d like you to do in a second part of the homework is to come up and follow through on a few actions that you can take to reduce your footprint. Find our your results and research some solutions. You can also include actions you are already undertaking.
These cards might or might not be of help to you.
Your design project: Preparing your presentation…
Preparing your presentation can be a good moment to review your design work and make tweaks.
Be sure to structure your presentation well. Have a look here for support. Once you have the structure, decide what is most important to fit into your 12 minutes. Make sure to include the specific tools you have used, the ethics and principles that have guided your process and what conclusions the tools and principles have led to.
Ideas for practicals
As part of the course you will require to do and document 2 practical projects (approx 3 hours of work each). Here are some ideas… if you don’t like them, there will be ideas with each module. Or come up with your own.
Insulate your home! You might be renting, but finding drafts and draft proofing them won’t cost you much money - in fact it might save you some.
Apply water saving measures in your home, reduce the amount of household chemicals you use and find ways to reduce your waste.
Quiz & completion
Taking the quiz and showing that you have understood the material covered in this module is essential for you to receive the Permaculture Design Course Certificate at the end of the course.
Feedback
Receiving your feedback on what we do is essential for us to keep improving our courses - for you and those that learn with us after you. It will take 5 minutes - thank you!