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Permaculture Ecologi

Permaculture. The clue is in the name.

What is it that links biodiversity loss, ecological degradation, growing depression and a nagging sense of purposelessness pervading the lives of so many? According to a growing movement connecting the ecological crisis to the underlying values at the heart of society, it is our disconnection from nature, and by extension, ourselves.

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For the first few hundred thousand years of human life, we understood ourselves as intimately intertwined with nature, roaming the land in search of hospitable terrain and climate, relying on simple technology to take our fair share of its bounty. With the advent of agriculture, we began to insulate ourselves from predators and inclement climate, able to remain in one place permanently thanks to the creation of settlements and preserving crops in storehouses in case of rainy days. 
Whilst this brought increased security, it also planted the seed of a mentality that nature is something separate from us, to be conquered or guarded against, rather than something of which we are a constituent part. Something we are causally connected to, not merely affected by, and affecting ourselves through our actions. Fast forward 10,000 years or so and this mentality has been carried to its logical conclusion. In search of ever more comfortable and pleasure-filled existences, we have transformed our view of nature from one of respect and awe at that which sustains us into seeing it as a mere resource to be exploited at any cost.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in modern agriculture. As production must rise to meet ever increasing global demand, we gradually deplete our soil through intensive practices which focus on short term yields at the expense of long term health. We <a href="https://ecologi.com/articles/blog/industries-and-sectors-driving-deforestation-what-you-need-to-know" target="_blank" rel="noopener">eviscerate rainforests and replace them with meat and dairy farms</a>, thereby substituting invaluable carbon sinks with a highly resource-intensive industry; or we replace these forests with monocultures (of palm trees for palm oil or soy as animal feed for example) thereby replacing the invaluable biodiversity of the rainforest with what amount to ecological deserts.
When doubts are raised about conventional agricultural practices, the response is that this is the only choice we have in order to be able to feed a global population estimated to be<a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/world-population-prospects-2017.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> 9.8 billion by 2050</a>. But this is a fallacy. Not only will we begin to run out of soil with the capacity to produce nutritional crops as land becomes more scarce and we cannot simply move onto the next field when we have worn out whatever patch we are on. By continuing to treat nature as a resource to be exploited, we will overtip our planetary scales in numerous areas essential to life on earth, from biodiversity loss to greenhouse gas emissions to water depletion. By focusing merely on short term production without looking at the root cause of what has created the emergency we find ourselves in &#8211; namely our positioning ourselves as antithetical to nature &#8211; we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes.

Thankfully, there are ways of protecting our planet’s natural biodiversity whilst supporting the global populace. They simply often go ignored because they are far less profitable for multinational agrochemical corporations (since they rely less on expensive artificial fertilisers and expensive patented seeds for example) and because they advocate a lifestyle which is not endorsed by our current economic and political reality, moving away from rampant consumerism to a slower-paced reconnection with nature. (They are also, admittedly, more complicated and labour-intensive by and large, but this can certainly be viewed as a positive as a means to provide employment for a growing population and reestablishing our connection to nature in the process.)
The umbrella term for this type of agriculture is known as Permaculture. The name denotes an emphasis on sustainable (ie ‘permanent’) methods of cultivating the land. This can take many forms, from agroforestry to rewilding to regenerative agriculture, all united by understanding nature as a self-regenerating system of which we are a part. As a system which has been sustaining itself for 6 billion years in ever-increasing complexity and sophistication, nature already bears within it all of the intelligence needed to propagate its flourishing. Permaculture asserts that we do not need to add to or take anything away from nature, but rather to interact with it based on the principles that it outlines to us if we pay close enough attention.

A particularly interesting example of permaculture is<a href="https://agendagotsch.com/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Syntropic Agriculture</a>, because it aims to reduce invasive intervention in nature to a minimum. Far from requiring chemical additives to increase soil productivity for example, natural cycles are catalysed in order that soil becomes richer and richer with every passing harvest. As the fastest growing plants grow too tall and begin to deprive the others of sunlight, they are cut down or pruned, their dead leaves and branches acting as biomass which not only enriches the soil but can<a href="https://agendagotsch.com/en/water-can-be-planted-video/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> pass on genetic information</a> to the other plants which helps them to grow faster in turn.
The soil is not tilled where possible (a key principle of regenerative agriculture more broadly), which would release valuable nutrients (as well as locked in carbon) into the atmosphere. Rather the soil is left alone to become richer and richer as layers upon layers of biomass build up. Additionally, rather than introducing pesticides or farm animals to kill pests, Syntropic Agriculture aims to allow natural cycles to take place and find balance. This may mean letting a field of lettuce be destroyed by slugs for one harvest in order to allow natural predators to emerge by the next cycle who will manage the problem for you, thereby avoiding any unpredictable disruption to the natural biological hierarchies in place.
Protecting the harvest is thought of systemically, through having a diverse crop which is not vulnerable to any one pest. This contrasts with conventional farming which focuses on monocultures &#8211; innately devoid of the diversity which brings resilience &#8211; which must be protected at all costs with chemicals which are toxic not only to pests but humans as well.

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These more natural techniques (not to be confused as technological simple: often they make use of advanced but ecological-friendly machinery and tools) are often thought of as idealistic throwbacks which are too inefficient to meet glowing global demand. It is true that sustainable farming does often prove slightly less efficient than conventional farming in the short term. Firstly however, this is not always the case. For example, organic crops have been known to do better in drought conditions because<a href="https://you.stonybrook.edu/environment/sustainable-vs-conventional-agriculture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> they retain more water,</a> which is highly relevant considering<a href="https://www.wri.org/blog/2017/08/7-reasons-were-facing-global-water-crisis" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> growing global water shortages</a>. 
But much more significantly, the concept of short-term efficiency at the expense of long-term sustainability is fundamentally flawed. A system which depletes water and energy reserves, biodiversity and soil health at a rate faster than the planet can replenish those resources is inherently unsustainable. Only a system which regenerates nature alongside and by means of producing the resources it needs can meet the competing restrictions of global food demand and planetary limitations.
 The real issue is not one of productive capacity, but what we choose to consume. One hectare of beef pasture land can feed one person for a year, whereas<a href="https://www.theworldcounts.com/challenges/consumption/foods-and-beverages/world-consumption-of-meat/story" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> one hectare of rice cropland can feed 20.</a> Permaculture will therefore tend to focus on crop production as opposed to animal rearing (though there are many examples of meat-farming in permaculture, such as mob grazing, whereby animals are introduced cyclically onto different segments of land to kill pests and provide natural fertiliser) and naturally advocates a predominantly vegetarian diet, the adoption of which by the global populace would allow us to<a href="https://www.downtoearth.org/blogs/2012-05/world-hunger-can-be-solved-vegetarian-diet" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> feed everyone easily.</a> 
There are growing signs that the status quo is changing, with DEFRA announcing the<a href="https://business.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0300b5532c917bd63846a4fa2&amp;id=bcc73a8117&amp;e=a0a03d19f1" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Path to Sustainable Farming</a>, a seven year roadmap to bring agriculture in the UK in line with the UK’s target to achieve net-zero by 2050, and will involve ideas such as rewarding farmers for managing their land in such way that promotes carbon storage and improvement of soil health. It has been criticised for a lack of concrete proposals and commitment to genuine sustainability, but it is unquestionably a step in the right direction.
Regardless of the technical arguments however, the main argument for permaculture centres around the values we hold. What kind of world do we want to inhabit: one in which we respect nature and work the land in a manner consistent with and complementary to ancient intelligence? Or one where we push it to the brink of what it can produce in search of increasingly disconnected and cosseted lifestyles? The choice we make will define whether humans flourish or perish over the coming decades.

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You can find out more about permaculture and ways you can get involved <a href="https://www.permaculture.org.uk">here</a>. And if agriculture isn’t your bag, there are several other ways to make a difference, from<a href="https://ecologi.com"> planting trees</a> to pushing for<a href="https://extinctionrebellion.uk" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> political change</a> to<a href="https://www.triodos.co.uk" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> greening your finances</a>. Because sustainability isn’t just about what we eat; it’s a mindset we all must adopt in every area of our lives.

Updates

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At Ecologi we’re often reaching for the celebration klaxon for our community’s impact milestones, but it’s a little different this time around.
Today, we’re pleased to announce that we’ve taken on £4m ($5.7m) of investment led by <a href="https://www.generalcatalyst.com/">General Catalyst</a> to follow our dreams and grow Ecologi to the scale needed to take on climate change in a significant way.
General Catalyst has a knack for turning their investments into household names: AirBnB, Deliveroo, Snapchat, Stripe, and Monzo to name just a few.
We know there’s room for the Spotify of Sustainability, and it’s with the resources of a leading investor that we can make this a reality, in a timeframe suitable for turning the proverbial Titanic around and reversing climate change over the critical decade ahead.
Before we started Ecologi, the idea was that we’d be set up as a non-profit organisation. Our mission is altruistic and that non-profit model aligned with our vision. As half of the world’s emissions have happened within the <a href="https://ieep.eu/news/more-than-half-of-all-co2-emissions-since-1751-emitted-in-the-last-30-years">lifetime of a 30-year-old</a>, there isn’t the luxury of time to grow traditionally through donations and slower ‘organic growth’. But, it didn’t take long to understand that to achieve Spotify-level scale, then you need Spotify-level capital to fulfil our potential impact.
It’s not just a sum of money that we were looking for, but a partner who wholly understands the delicate conditions which Ecologi needs to thrive: putting the planet first; complete transparency; keeping operational costs minimal; and staying ethical (see our decision to <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/withdrawing-tech-nations-net-zero-elliot-coad/">withdraw from TechNation</a>).
Amongst 50 or so investors we spoke to, it was General Catalyst who fully understood this ethical tightrope with our long term plans to raise the bar on what it means to be a social enterprise. They gave examples of supporting one of their investments to donate over <a href="https://www.warbyparker.com/buy-a-pair-give-a-pair">eight million prescription glasses</a>; they set up a non-profit fund with excess profits from an ethical investment; also they understood that the future of Ecologi should be part-owned by our community via crowdfunding &#8211; an exciting development to own a stake in Ecologi and our planet too (more details at the end of this post).

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As we approach our 2nd birthday, we enter a new chapter with Ecologi that will be characterised with scale. Up to now, everything has been done on the tightest of budgets with our wonderful but tiny team. We look forward to progressing our climate impact exponentially as we race towards our target to reduce 50% of global emissions by 2040.
There is plenty we have in store. We want to actually show you the impact you’re making through storytelling and technology. We want to support projects that rewild our planet and fund innovative carbon removal technology. We want to show you your carbon footprint in real-time. We want to make good on the opportunity that can come out of rounding up the world’s pocket money and putting it into the world’s most impactful climate solutions.
Now we can, so no excuses! Let’s grow. 🌿
From Elliot, Lucy, Alex and the team here: thank you for your part in supporting this ray of climate hope 💚

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We showed a draft of this announcement to a few of our Ecologi subscribers and friendly critics and asked them what questions they had:
What will you spend the investment on?
Now’s the time to scale up our teams to enhance the platform, grow our climate projects procurement and reporting team, and expand our marketing and partnership teams. We’ll be a company of 40-60 people over the next 12 months. 
The investment will also allow us to buy larger quantities of certified carbon offsets and tree purchases upfront meaning we can plan better, get access to some projects we’d otherwise not be able to, and sometimes access better prices.
Some of the existing staff will be now paid the going rate for their level of expertise. None of the investment is to go on bonuses or dividends. 
Will we still operate Ecologi as we have done?
Absolutely yes.
If we are to be massively successful in our objectives it’s because we took on board everything that you needed us to be.
Is the source of the investment from profits of fossil fuel or high carbon industries?
No. It’s from a combination of pension funds that make investments in technology, and previous technology company profits. 
What is the investor expecting in return?
They will be looking to make a return on their investment, multiple times the amount they put in. And this is something that we can achieve and be entirely compatible with our journey. 
At some point in our future we’ll expect to come to the end of investment rounds and have a few options to suit us: be acquired and taken under the wing of a major future sustainability company; float on the stock market and be publicly owned; or even Ecologi makes their own investments in early-stage climate projects which yield their own returns. It’s far too early to say which financing route will come into effect but be assured that it’ll be a decision made with our mission in mind.
Investors will be expecting no dividends during this journey as any profits are to be reinvested back into the company.
How is Ecologi going to stay ethical?
As we grow, we will have the resources to upgrade our <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dACvzjE5nBE1cKZBAhYzsUa7rIiLJqCWXVgY4bNS8_Q/edit#gid=1742437033">transparency docs</a> and be a lot more verbose about what we’re up to. A quick run-through of what’s coming up: 
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<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">In the queue to be B Corp certified, all prep governance work is complete; </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">A bonafide social enterprise with mission locked into our company documents; </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Increased detail on our quarterly financial reports such as director salary info; </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Regular “our door is always open”-style drop-in to chat with Elliot, the CEO, over Zoom;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Lifting the lid on what we’re up to with a “Building Ecologi” blog series.</li>
</ul>
Every person on the team and now investors included knows that we have our hearts fully set on creating a company that reimagines what it is to be a social enterprise. 
It’s going to take some doing, and bear with us as we get there. But please <a href="https://ecologi.com/pages/contact">drop us a line</a> on how we’re doing, as well maybe subscribe to our new <a href="https://medium.com/building-ecologi">Building Ecologi</a> series where we’ll talk about our plans out in the open and welcome your thoughts.

And finally, we’re thinking of running a crowdfunding campaign later this year. We’d love to <a href="https://ecologi.typeform.com/to/DMMimqA9">ask you five questions</a> that should take less than a minute to answer.

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Do you remember, somewhere in the fog of 2020, that period where the pandemic had seeped into every area of our lives but its exact contours and consequences hadn’t yet been established? That point after the initial panic was over, where people had begun to accept this new reality, and had started to consider where we might go from here? Somehow, amidst the horror of news screens filled with ventilated bodies and death counts scrolling ever upward, hope began to spring. Thoughtful, poetic articles began to emerge online about the deeper meaning of this event. Humanity had been given a chance to pause, to reflect, and perhaps &#8211; against all odds &#8211; change course. There was a cautious, quasi-spiritual sense that the planet was sending us a message, as if Mother Nature had realised that humans were not going to bring themselves back from the brink and was now taking the matter into her own hands. These visions of a better society were complemented by a raft of personal resolutions towards self-improvement: goals were set and new habits were inculcated, with the aim of returning after the pandemic a better you in a better world. It was as if we were all given the opportunity to zoom out, from our own lives but also society as a whole, to decide what was really important.
This sense of optimism seemed to be supported by palpable changes in our environment. Global emissions were down 7%; flights had dropped 96%; there were dolphins in Venice! These cracks of light in the gloom sustained us, made us feel as if the pandemic was really for something (beyond, well, surviving a pandemic). That is, there seemed to be a goal we were working towards, by which we could orientate our present reality, giving it some sense. And this was important. Hope sustains us in times of difficulty. It is the voice which reminds us no pain lasts forever, that the sun also rises.

But it seems that somewhere along the way, this optimism began to give way to something else. Weariness. Disillusionment. As lockdown 2 almost imperceptibly melted into lockdown 3, as the term ‘wave’ began to lose all meaning because the Covid tide had never gone away, darker realities began to set in. Not only did we witness our governments continue to vacillate and send mixed messages, we saw huge opportunities to restructure our economy missed, the same old mistakes from the 2008 financial crisis repeated as ‘too big to fail’ industries such as aviation and steel were bailed out, with no climate-change mitigation requirements built into the rescue packages. Rather than being <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-leveller-trfn-idUSKCN21R30P" target="_blank" rel="noopener">‘The Great Leveller’</a>, we saw this pandemic exacerbate existing inequalities, the wealth of the top 1% rising by $8 trillion during the pandemic whilst many ordinary people were reduced to government handouts. Working from home also removed access to an equal workspace and put increased pressure on those facing challenging circumstances in their home environment. And everywhere we looked we found ourselves adrift in a sea of plastic: the take-out diets triple-plastic wrapped to avoid contamination, the delivery packages ordered to punctuate the boredom of lockdown living, and of course the proliferation of that once unknown acronym: PPE. And perhaps most deflating of all, it turned out those dolphins had never been in Venice, that it was a piece of <a href="https://www.2oceansvibe.com/2020/03/23/sorry-but-the-dolphins-that-appeared-in-venice-is-fake-news/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fake news</a> exploiting the sense of hope in the air.
What happened here? Were we deluded to dream of a better future? Did we imagine something that never really could have been? 
No. It is never wrong to hope. And it did sustain us in those interminable lockdown months. Our error was in putting our hopes on an external event, in this notion that Covid had come to save us, as if it were some sort of geo-biological defense mechanism, the natural arc of history correcting itself. But an event can only be as significant as the responses which it generates. Which is to say, the significance of the pandemic was in the million daily acts of kindnesses which it elicited: the grocery collections for elderly and infirm neighbours, the selfless bravery of the frontline workers putting themselves and their families at risk for the greater good, the proactiveness of those who organised events and other forms of support for the most vulnerable. Without even realising it, without waiting for a sunny day where we would have the type of society that we wanted, we were building it in front of our very eyes. One based on solidarity, equality and community concern (all of which happen to be the very characteristics needed to pull us out of the climate crisis &#8211; since we are all sharing increasingly limited space and resources on this planet). What we needed wasn’t a deus ex machina to solve the problem. What we needed was to see that the world around us is a result of the values we hold as a society, and it is this we need to change. This means remembering that the same essential ties that bound us through the pandemic persist and it is along these ties that change is effected, not some grand narrative happening out there. After all, the planet doesn’t care &#8211; it is humans that will perish, not nature.

The pandemic certainly has and will create short term change. The US government has just initiated an unprecedented $1.9 trillion stimulus package which stands to halve national poverty for example. But if we forget the lessons that Covid taught us about our own ways of life, such socially-minded policies will quickly fade into memory. No cataclysm will prevent business as usual from returning. As the Cree Indian saying goes, “Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish been caught, and the last stream poisoned, will we realize we cannot eat money.” We cannot wait for further wildfires, droughts and floods to jostle us into wakefulness. It is only through a wave of individuals coming together into communities, into a global movement, encompassing economics, energy, agriculture, and politics, that a truly sustainable way of life will be achieved. Outward events can point us in the direction, but we must walk the path. The steps need not be huge, but we must continue to take them. Reading or sharing this article. <a href="https://ecologi.com/plan">Subscribing to offset the carbon we produce</a>. Reducing meat consumption, <a href="https://ecologi.com/articles/blog/one-small-step-for-you-one-giant-impact-for-humankind">greening our finances</a> or <a href="https://ecologi.com/articles/blog/activism-how-the-drops-inside-the-ocean-are-breaking-down-the-dam">joining a movement</a>. Every step counts. But never question that it is you who must walk those steps. Far from being a lonely journey, the more you do, the more you will find the others who are walking it with you.

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Looking for some more info on our George The Poet video? You’ve come to the right place! It tells the story of the importance of sowing seeds of hope for the future generations and inspiring people to be part of something bigger: a community, a movement, a change… 
 
Lots of work went into the creation of this video &#8211; 11 crew members were involved in the overall production, through the creativity of Bristol-based agency <a href="https://www.enviral.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Enviral</a>, who helped turn around this project in just 14 days.

George The Poet was our first choice for this campaign. He’s a firm favourite of both the Ecologi and Enviral teams, and we were so excited at the possibility of working alongside him. Putting aside his ability to produce and deliver incredible spoken word pieces, and the huge body of work that he can put his name to, he is a true champion of sustainability. 
That&#8217;s why we loved working with the team at Enviral on this project; because of their storytelling abilities. They understand the importance of conveying a genuine, engaging narrative. They knew George would be able to create something amazing, which oozed purpose and which reflected the passion of our Ecologi team. 
Having a lead who truly cares about the planet was vital. We wanted to inspire viewers to take action, and we couldn’t think of anyone better to get this across than George The Poet.

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With limited time, finding a suitable location was a bit of a challenge. We knew that the audio was the lead in this film so we had to find a location away from roads and airports so we could ensure crisp sound. Whilst we can’t reveal exactly where the film was shot, the countryside between London and Bristol proved to be perfect!

The video was directed by the Envival team, a sustainability-focused agency who were stoked to be working on a campaign they were so aligned with. The full Enviral production crew was brought together for the shoot including Joss as the Director, and their camera crew, audio team and photographer.

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What we did to comply with Covid regulations

Covid is real. Whilst we&#8217;re so happy to be back on set again, it&#8217;s super important to make sure that everyone is safe and comfortable. By following the industry guidelines, ensuring that everyone wore masks, respecting social distancing, and by shooting outdoors, we were able to mitigate the risks as much as possible and ensure a safe and successful shoot.

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<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">George did 12 takes over the course of just 2 hrs</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">We had 11 crew on set in total</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The final video took 6 hours of colour grading to make it look perfect! </li>
</ul>

Permaculture. The clue is in the name.

Our relationship with nature

What is Permaculture?

An example:

For the long term ...

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