What is a Permaculture Design Certificate?

June 13, 2019

This practical, intensive 80-hour certified training provides you with a broad introduction to the applications of permaculture in a number of different situations, from food production to community structures, and alternative currencies to eco-building.


The course culminates in the group design activity that helps to consolidate all of the learning and empower you to take permaculture back into your home, life and community. Using practical, experiential and theoretical teaching methods, the PDC will be a fun and inclusive experience that will enhance your skills to better care for ourselves, each other and the Earth.

Our PDC is certified by the British Permaculture Association.

The 80 hour PDC is guided by Bill Mollison’s curriculum and delivered in collaboration with CELL Centre for Ecological Learning Transition Hub. The training is split into approximately: one third classroom time, one-third practice and design time and one third visits, games, reflection and group sharing time. The Permaculture Design Course encourages participants to observe permaculture principles in action, and experience how these processes influence systems and site development in an experimental living environment.

Participants on the course will have the unique opportunity to base their design projects on actual developments taking place within the Luxembourg Transition community. The course gives participants ample time to digest the theory, get hands-on experience and integrate new skills because it is taught over the space of 5 months.

Key themes:

  • Permaculture Ethics: Care for the earth, care for others
  • Permaculture Principles: Attitudinal and ecological
  • The Permaculture Design Process: Skills, tools and methods
  • Design Practice: Group work on design projects
  • Design Presentation: Demonstrating and evaluating coursework

Topics include:

  • Soil: Food web, macro/microorganisms, mulching, composting, tilling, soil sampling, erosion, mycorrhizal and bacterial associations
  • Water: Hydrology cycle, rainwater harvesting, natural wastewater systems, drainage, water as energy store and water use
  • Plants and Trees: Tree species, energy transactions, forest gardening, temperate climate, indicator plants and orchards
  • Food Production: Organic and regenerative farming, bed creation, food preservation
  • Built Environment: Ecological buildings, retrofitting, transport, renewable energy, and urban contexts
  • Resource Use: Ecological and carbon footprints, asset assessments
  • Social Systems: Personal and community resilience, communication skills, economics, land tenure, governance, and decision-making.
  • Community Building: team building, morning circles, systems games, social design of the PDC
  • Local site visits and invited guest presenters

Any more questions? Don’t hesitate to send us an email.

If you are in a low-income situation, please talk to us and we will try to find a way to have you participate (e.g. payment through instalments, etc.).

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For general inquiries, please get in touch through the form so we can be at your service.  If you have a project you want to discuss, please use this form so we can respond to your needs in more detail or book a consulting appointment in our shop.